In an area of the Peninsula where fast food chains outnumber grocery stores, food justice nonprofit Collective Roots organizes a weekly farmers’ market to encourage healthy and sustainable living.
Various projects are underway in East Palo Alto to fight childhood obesity, including those focused on exercise, healthy eating and community safety.
East Palo Alto is planning to turn the vacant Cooley Landing into a bayfront park. It will add nine more acres of parkland to a city that does not have the state’s recommended number of parks per 1,000 people.
East Palo Alto mom Ofelia Valencia’s started taking community cooking class when her 9-year-old started gaining weight. The classes are part of the city’s effort to help families fight childhood obesity.
East Palo Alto was known as a “food desert” for over 20 years, but that ended when the Mi Pueblo supermarket opened last year. Owners of smaller markets are concerned about the competition.