Go Mayor Newsome! Way to make San Francisco the best place to eat!

[Carol Chao]

Mayor Newsom just issued an executive directive to change San Francisco's approach to food. The directive:

1) directs city departments to conduct an audit of unused land that could be turned in community gardens or farms.
2) Food supplied by food vendors for the city and food purchased by staff for city meetings must be healthy.
3) Famer's markets must begin accepting food stamps (YAY!)

Within two months : The mayor will send an ordinance to the Board of Supervisors mandating that all food served in city jails, hospitals, homeless shelters and community centers be healthy.

I really appreciate the work Mayor Newsome is doing in making San Francisco a more sustainable, greener, and healthier place to live. I would love to see the vacant, trash-strewn lot I pass on my morning commute become a community garden. The community gardens in SF currently have a waiting list to get into them - that's how popular they are.

I'm also happy to see that he hasn't left out the vulnerable populations that live in SF - food stamps at farmer's markets means lower income families will be able to enjoy healthy, fresh, often organic produce more often! Californians in jail, the sick, and the homeless will also now have access to healthy food.

Great job Mayor Newsome!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/09/MN5C...

[Linda Shak]

It's great news! We have tracked down the policy language already and will be adding this to the ENACT Local Policy: www.preventioninstitute.org/sa/policies.