AIA LA & So Cal NOMA present…
a JEDI Committee initiative

Food Security in the Built Environment: Partnering for Change

The JEDI Committee encourages architects and designers to connect with the The Los Angeles Food Policy Council  to support their Healthy Neighborhood Market Program.

The Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC) works to ensure food is healthy, affordable, fair and sustainable for all Los Angelenos. We achieve this through the Good Food For All Agenda. We use a collective impact model to make a material change through policy development and programmatic implementation. One of our programs is the Healthy Neighborhood Market Program (HNMN).

The HNMN program builds corner store and neighborhood market owners’ capacity to operate as successful, healthy food retailers in under-served communities. Through a series of free business technical assistance and leadership development trainings, the program organizes a sector of corner stores and other small food enterprises around resources for healthy food retail.

A component of this program is to support our store partner’s brick and mortar transformation projects. Every year we select a store to be transformed into a healthy business. Here is An example:

People Making A Difference: Creating An Oasis In a Food Desert

The pandemic has exposed the gaps in access to healthy food options, Many of our store partners were able to address the needs their communities had in accessing fresh produce and other healthy food options. Prior to our program, many of our store partners did not have the food options in their inventory that were essential items during this pandemic.

Our transformation projects are important because they address equity in the built environment, provide support for more healthy food inventory, and facilitate a better experience for the community. We are creating more economic opportunity for small business owners, and addressing decades long divestment of healthy food options in communities experiencing food apartheid.

In order to achieve the maximum impact, we rely on strategic partnerships from architect firms like all of you. If the transformation project is something your organization or any associated organizations can provide pro-bono assistance for, please reach out to Ronnell Hampton, NOMA at ronnell@goodofoodla.org. Together, let’s address food security and partner for change.

Please let us know if you have any questions. We hope this is an opportunity that is of interest to the AIA membership, and we look forward to hearing from some of you soon.

For more information, please contact:

Ronnell Hampton
Policy Manager, Healthy Neighborhood Market Network
(Pronouns: He/Him/His)
Los Angeles Food Policy Council
305 E. 1st Street | Los Angeles, CA 90012
ronnell@goodfoodla.org
www.goodfoodla.org

JEDI Committee:

Joshua A. Foster, NOMA, Assoc. AIA – Co-Chair, JEDI Committee & KFA Architecture
Leslie Sydnor, AIA, LEED AP – Co-Chair, JEDI Committee & & Board Director, AIA Los Angeles
Ziba Ghassemi, AIA, LEED AP – Vice-Chair, JEDI Committee & Board Director, AIA Los Angeles
Genelle Brooks-Petty, NOMA, Assoc. AIA – Vice-Chair, JEDI Committee & Board Director, So Cal NOMA

REGISTER HERE. (Free w/ advance RSVP)

RESOURCE LINKS:

AIA|LA JEDI Committee