The HOPE Collaborative (Health for Oakland’s People and Environment) is a new organization that aims to transform food and fitness in Oakland and improve quality of life in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

According to its mission, the group "envisions vibrant Oakland neighborhoods that provide equitable access to affordable, healthy, locally grown food; safe and inviting places for physical activity and play; sustainable, successful, local economies—all to the benefit of the families and youth living in Oakland's most vulnerable neighborhoods."

Its goals include healthy food stores, farmers markets and community and household gardens in each neighborhood; neighborhoods that are safe so residents can go outside and to these stores without fear of crime; and food stores that are owned by community residents.

In 2007, an advisory group, with members from Alameda County Community Food Bank, Alameda County Public Health, Kaiser Permanente, and Urban Ecology, received a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to identify health disparities in Oakland and show how to eliminate them by working with like-minded groups and city residents.

With the food bank as its fiscal sponsor, the group identified six neighborhoods in east and west Oakland with the most disparities. The group then invited local health-focused organizations and community members to help form the HOPE Collaborative. Members formed a steering committee and action teams to strategize how to make healthy food and fitness available in all Oakland neighborhoods.

Last year, HOPE submitted its plan to Kellogg and received $1.2 million to form an organization and implement the plans. The group is now sponsored by Tides Shared Spaces. 

Patricia St. Onge, of SEVEN Generations Consulting, became the interim director in January.  She said she'll help hire a permanent director in the next few months.

St. Onge said the goal now is to get as many organizations and community members to join as possible, and to move from its broad plans to “seeing kids eating fruit in school.” She said individual organizations’ work will overlap with HOPE’s work and contribute to an ever-widening circle of outreach to advance the shared mission.

Angela Jenkins, the East Bay community benefit manager at Kaiser Permanente, helped draft the first grant application, to Kellogg, and served on the steering committee and action groups.

Her commitment to making food and fitness accessible to everyone, she said, is both professional and personal. Her job at Kaiser requires her to identify projects to fund that improve community health. Jenkins lives in a neighborhood where she can safely be outside and walk to grocery stores and farmers markets. She said living in such a community “keeps her healthy” and she knows how much it can change lives.

Jenkins said Kaiser will continue to offer to HOPE its expertise and considerable resources, including additional funding, and the she plans to remain involved in the project.

Jason Harvey, founder of Oakland Food Connection, an organization that promotes nutritional awareness and access to healthy foods, also served on the steering committee and action groups during the planning phase. He said he's waiting to see how HOPE’s infrastructure and implementation plans evolve before he determines what he'll do next with the group. But he said HOPE’s intention is “amazing, and if successfully implemented even at 80 percent,” many lives would improve.

He expressed concern that political considerations may dilute or delay progress, because large institutions and local government are members, and that the funding stream to smaller organizations could be squeezed if they’re competing with HOPE for funds.

Oakland native and community activist Leon Davis said he believes HOPE will succeed if residents who live in the poor neighborhoods can be convinced its mission is to “recapture the wealth of the community,” and that improvements are actually theirs to reclaim, own and sustain. He said, in his opinion, “the underclasses haven’t stood up for themselves.”

Davis has worked with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul cooking and serving food to those in need; the Oakland Mentoring Center, an organization that trains to mentors groups and works directly with at-risk youth; and a ministry in third-world countries helping alleviate disparities. He too served on the steering committee and action teams during HOPE’s planning stage.

Davis sees his role with HOPE as a facilitator between the community and the organization to keep reminding both parties that residents must help plan and own the improvements in order to sustain them. Once the group restructures, he plans to work with 25 community members he introduced to HOPE and help them recruit others.

Ultimately, he said, there needs to be more than a healthy food store in each neighborhood. He said community members must be “involved at all levels of food availability," including forming a board to oversee the process.

When healthy food is available and residents own the stores, are part of the processing and distribution workforce, share profits and learn the business of food availability, Davis said, only then will disparities disappear.

For the most current information or to apply for membership while HOPE’s Web site is being updated, e-mail slabeaux.hope@gmail.com.
 
For questions about Kaiser Community Benefits program call 510-752-6122 or email Public-Affairs-Community-Benefits@kp.org.