Patt Morrison for Monday, 9/6/2010 - Labor Day holiday show - ON TAPE

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Monday, September 6, 2010

1-3 p.m.

 

LABOR DAY HOLIDAY - PROGRAM ON TAPE.

 

 

1:00 – 1:20

Navigating L.A.’s Food Deserts—why so many have access to so little

The statistical disparities are shocking: for residents in South Los Angeles, the rate of obesity is 34.4%; for those living in West L.A. it’s 11.7%.  The rate of obesity for teenagers in South L.A. is 19.6%; for teens in West L.A. it’s 4.1%.  Neighborhood differences of race, ethnicity, and income are primary determinants of health disparities and access to healthy foods. How is it that neighborhoods, in some cases just a few miles apart, produce such radically varying degrees of health and nutrition?  The areas of East and South Los Angeles are essentially food deserts, providing limited options for fresh produce and healthier food, especially when compared to their more affluent neighbors.  What are the contrasts in the health of these disparate populations of Angelenos, and how did the nutritional gaps grow to be so wide?

 

Guests:

Toni Yancey, M.D., MPH, Professor in the Department of Health Services and Co-Director of the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity at the UCLA School of Public Health 

Lark Galloway-Gilliam, Executive Director, Community Health Councils

• Authors of “Food Desert to Food Oasis” – NEW recommendations to get more grocery stores in South LA and Does Race Define What’s in the Shopping Cart?

 

Steve Diaz, Community Organizer, Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN)

• Taken for Granted: Ignoring Downtown Food Insecurity

 

1:20 – 1:40

Rules of Supermarket Attraction: how to bring more grocery stores to underserved areas

It started with the infamous white flight of the 60’s & 70’s— as the affluent fled the inner cities and headed for the suburbs of Los Angeles, the supermarkets went with them.  After the 1992 riots, the city government made it a priority to bring full-service grocery stores back to South & East L.A. neighborhoods. While there were some successes, most of the stores that did open up after the riot closed soon thereafter.  Now in South L.A., there are 60 full-service grocery stores serving an average population of 22,156 residents per store in contrast to the 57 stores in West LA that serve only 11,150 residents on average.  While the disparity in access to healthy food is undeniable, the potential solutions are more debatable— how can the city, and the residents of South & East L.A., attract grocery store chains?  Why can’t a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s turn a profit in traditionally underserved areas?  If they build the markets, will the customers come?

 

Guests:

Elliott Petty, Director of Grocery & Retail Projects, Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)

Ed Reyes, Los Angeles City Councilman Representing Council District 1

• Councilmember Reyes, as chair of the City's Planning and Land Use Management committee, introduced a motion to enact land use controls to attract more grocery stores to underserved communities, thus addressing public safety, health and quality of life issues.
  
  

Matthew Dodson, Director of Local Government Relations for the California Grocers Association

 

Lark Galloway-Gilliam, Executive Director, Community Health Councils

 

 

1:40 – 2:00

Navigating L.A.’s Food Deserts: solutions from the bottom up

Changing the options available at local corner markets and liquor stores—of which there are tens of thousands of in LA—is one way around complicated zoning and economic challenges that make it difficult to build large, full-service supermarkets in underserved areas. These corner store conversions, or “market makeovers,” as they’re sometimes called, have high success rates because they work within the community and with its resources to improve access to healthy foods.  Sometimes it’s as easy as moving the junk food to the back of the store and ensuring that there’s at least some access to fruit and vegetables.  In a similar effort, community gardens equip neighborhoods with the tools and skills they need to make a small and immediate difference themselves.  While urban gardens and farmers’ markets will never take the place of full-service grocery stores, they are an important and growing step toward food independence.  Made hip again by the likes of First Lady Michelle Obama, there are many programs that encourage and incentivize new urban gardens.  The gardens act both as a source for fresh produce and a classroom for children who learn the importance of eating healthy.  While supplemental to households at the very least, could the urban garden movement actually ease the pressing demand for market options?

 

Guests:

Aurora Flores, project manager for Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC), which has been working on “Market Makeovers,” in South and East LA

 

Magali Bravo, a youth ambassador for Healthy Eating, Active Communities (HEAC)

She helped transform her local corner market through HEAC’s Market Makeovers program while she was a student at Accelerated School’s Wallis Annenberg High

 

Jenny Scanlin, Project Manager, Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA)

 

Pompea Smith, CEO, Market Manager, Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (SEE-LA)

           

Nicole Gatto, Director, Milagro Allegro Community Garden; MPH, Ph.D. Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, UCLA, Department of Epidemiology

 

 

LABOR DAY HOLIDAY PROGRAM – ON TAPE.

 

2:00 – 3:00

Tales of two school districts: LAUSD’s huge disparities & how to fix them

Student A attends El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, one of the top-achieving public schools in the state, a school that is a regular finalist in national Academic Decathlon competitions with plenty of advanced placement classes available, located in a bucolic upper-middle class neighborhood. Student B attends Belmont Senior High School in Westlake, a struggling school with an unbelievable 60% drop out rate where 80% of its students qualify for federal free or reduced lunches and students’ proficiency rates in both math and reading hover around 50%. How can two schools in the same district produce such wildly different results? This is the tale of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which with 617,000 students is one of the nation’s largest and most unwieldy, with huge disparities in access to good classrooms, teachers and coursework. Patt and her guests hear stories from students themselves about the differing experiences of going to school in the LAUSD and what can be done to bridge the educational gap.

 

Guests:

Yomila Xoy senior at the Civitas School of Leadership magnet at Edward R. Roybal Learning Center

• She hopes to attend Pomona College in 2011

 

Anastasya Lloyd-Damnjanovic, graduate of Marshall High School Class of 2010; she attended the School for Advanced Studies at Marshall

• She will be attending Princeton

 

Izabella Ferayan, graduate of Daniel Pearl Magnet School Class of 2010

• She will be attending UC Santa Barbara

 

Natalie Aguilar, graduate of Grant High School Class of 2010; she attended the Social Justice Small Learning Center at Grant

• She is attending UCLA

 

Mabel Sanchez, graduate of Huntington Park High School Class of 2010

• She is attending UCLA

 

Aden Binyam, graduate of University High School Class of 2010

She is attending Cal State Northridge

 

Sylvia Rousseau, professor of clinical education at the USC Rossier School of Education

• Rousseau was the principal of Santa Monica High School from 1993 – 2000
• She was the Superintendent of Local District 7 in the LAUSD from 2001 - 2005

 

Brock Cohen, English & humanities teacher at Grant High School in North Hollywood

 

Rev. Eric Lee, president & CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles