-- --Long Beach Fresh is excited to partner with Long Beach’s Grow2Zero FARMS, as they launch a food delivery program for homebound residents in West Long Beach. The delivery program will provide fresh produce grown at Grow2Zero FARMS and food from Food Finders, Food Forward, and Rockenwagner Bakery. Currently, we’re seeking local businesses, agencies, and […]
A study by the University of Southern California finds that during the height of the pandemic, one in four Los Angeles County households experienced food insecurity. Food security continues to be a prominent concern even as restrictions lift and re-openings continue. COVID-19 pointed to a lack of resilience within our food system, Dr. Libby Gustin, […]
According to a study by the U.S. Burden of Disease Collaborators, diet is the leading cause of death in the United States, resulting in half a million deaths a year. At a recent event, “Healthy Food as Preventative Medicine: California and Beyond,” hosted by SPUR, leaders using food as medicine share what policy, health care, […]
A recent webinar series, “Healthy, Climate-Friendly School Food: Strategies for Success,” hosted by Friends of the Earth highlights experiences of food staff and stakeholders in creating healthy meals for students. The final panel last Thursday, focused on a new report, “The State of School Meals in California”, that finds a significant disparity between California’s climate […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on many, especially those in the food industry. A report by the Independent Restaurant Coalition finds that 5.9 million restaurant jobs were lost between February and April of last year. And according to the National Restaurant Association, 17 percent of restaurants in the United States have closed permanently due […]
Long Beach has the opportunity to enact California’s new Homemade Food Act (AB 626) this year, which creates a permit process for the previously illegal occupation of selling homemade meals. The bill, signed into law by Gov Jerry Brown, took effect in January 2019, but requires a local ordinance to establish permits here in Long […]
Community Crop swaps are a way for neighbors to exchange what they’re growing in their community gardens and homes. The swap focuses on fruits, veggies, and herbs – but many also invite neighbors to bring potted plants, seedlings, seeds to share. Join the different swaps’ online communities linked below (there’s some great advice […]
Long Beach is a city of neighborhoods, and many of those neighborhoods have fruit trees! Some residents are happy to share their fruit, and others yet have fruit trees that spill over into alleyways and other public properties. Meanwhile, many Long Beach residents go without food. What if there were a way to better account for […]
Can we grow food, community, and the local economy all at once? Of course! Using space more creatively for food production is a big piece of the puzzle of changing our food system for the better – and it’s just what the newly approved Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones program, launched in November 2017, aims to encourage. On […]
If you have ideas about the little things that people can do to engage in healthier behaviors and become better connected with their food, we encourage you to write a guest post for us (click here for the interest form)! There are a lot of perceived barriers to buying local food and eating well; time, cost, and convenience […]
Did you know that it’s perfectly legal in Long Beach to grow and sell home-grown produce directly to neighbors, chefs, and friends? In this post, we describe some of the background, and how to get started. In 2015, The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services began accepting applications for the Community Food Producers license […]
We’re working to help get better snacks for sale at Long Beach school student stores. At many high and middle school in Long Beach are “stores” or “cafes” which are outside the federal lunch program’s rigorous standards and complex inter-level bureaucracy. The student store is highly independent, typically selling small bags of nuts, chips, fruit […]
Growing a food business is a lot easier when you have affordable access to a commercial kitchen! Here are some of the kitchens we are aware of, as well as some best practices for bringing your food business up to scale. Kitchens In Long Beach Feel Good Salsa’s Shared Kitchen Scottish Rite Event Center Partake […]
One of the best ways to change the food system on a large scale is to change the way the government spends its food dollars. On October 24, 2012, the City of Los Angeles adopted a Good Food Purchasing Policy. Soon after, Los Angeles Unified School District followed… Two years later, they have tested the […]