This Friday, July 30, Ashoka's Bay Area Youth Venture will be hosting a benefit for its  Fall 2010 launch of a new program "Just Food." 

The benefit - which takes place from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Numi Tea Garden, 2230 Livingston St. in Oakland - will have two dynamic speakers: New York Times Best Selling Author Mollie Katzen and Award winning Youth Venturer James Berk. The topics will be focused on healthy delicious food. At the event, there will be delicious morsels of locally harvested foods as well as wine. 

The benefit was created to promote Ashoka and Earth Island's New Leaders Initiative's collaboration on the new "Just Food" program, which will include issues connected to the food system and it's impact on communities in Oakland - ranging from access to local, healthy food to sustainable methods of obtaining, affordable pricing for healthy foods and reducing obesity rates and the inclusion of communities of color in critical dialogues on food policy.

How will they get the youth involved in this food justice movement ?

The structure of the "Just Food" program that Ashoka's and New Leaders Initiative will have local youth form project teams. These teams will  focus on solving  critical food justice issues that effect the Bay Area through investigation, deep reflection and imagination. The youth project teams will present their ideas to a panel of stakeholders for feedback. The evaluation of their projects will lead to access to seed start-up funding so that their ideas can become reality. These youth teams will have access to many resources such as networks, coaching, technical support as well as a 10-week-long curriculum.

How can attending this benefit bring all of those positive outcomes ?

"Just Food" is giving tools, resources and cultivating creativity within our youth while creating solutions for local food problems. Join the cause. Attend the benefit this Friday by contacting director of Ashoka's Bay Area Youth Venture at (510) 333-8465 or email awilson@youthventure.org.