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To Honor World Food Day, Mandela Foods Co-op Hosts Nutrition Justice Advocate

Published

8 years ago

October 5, 2017

In kicking off World Food Day, Mandela Foods Cooperative will host the “Where’s WANDA?” children’s book talk and signing with DC-based author and nutrition activist Tambra Raye Stevenson, on Sun., October 15th from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1430 7th Street in Oakland. Stevenson is the founder and CEO of WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture and heads the Health Committee for the NAACP branch in Wash., D.C.

“Diabetes took my grandma’s life due to her sweet tooth, depression and sedentary lifestyle. Now as a mom, I want to be a better example for my daughter and encourage her to make better choices,” says Stevenson. “I want women to recreate a world where our girls are supported by a village of WANDA women who inspire them to become future nutritionists, food policymakers, healthy food entrepreneurs, food writers and farmers that are communities desperately need.”

“Where’s WANDA? Little WANDA Finds a Cure for Nana” introduces a new girl character, Little WANDA as the “Doc McStuffins” of nutrition meets “Dora the Explorer” for Africa. Bringing black girl magic from farm to fork, Little WANDA leads young readers on a food adventure across Nigeria to find a cure for her Nana’s diabetes with the help of a local female farmer.

“The “Where’s Wanda?” series brings a new awareness to young women in how they can be more involved with nutrition locally and more importantly “globally.” Little Wanda looks like them and represents their children. It’s a cultural insight into our daily lives. Food sheroes like me love it,” says Oakland resident and owner of Wanda’s Cooking, Wanda Blake.

Seeing a lack of main girl characters, especially of color, Stevenson was inspired by her daughter to create a character for her to role model to embrace good nutrition and consider going into the field of agriculture and nutrition. So she decided to do something by creating this new book series and a nonprofit to promote more women and girls leading in the food system.

As a local champion, Cuisine Noir Magazine has been raffling copies of the book on social media. “Ms. Stevenson’s book helps to start an important conversation for families about the connection between health, culture and food. In addition, I love the book because it empowers little girls around the world to be influencers for their generation and others at any age,” says V. Sheree Williams, publisher of Cuisine Noir magazine.

Written in English and Hausa, an African language, the book addresses gender equity, education, health and wellbeing and nutrition related to the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations to promote global citizenship too.

“I wrote this book based on my journey in finding my roots in northern Nigeria as a nutritionist. I wanted to write a book to inspire kids that their heritage, gender and local food ways has value to heal our community!” That’s the message from the National Geographic’s Traveler of the Year, and internationally recognized nutrition educator Tambra Raye Stevenson.

Stevenson also shares her message as a contributing writer in the recently released “Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South” by food historian and author Michael Twitty who was recently in San Francisco for his book signing and dinner talk at MoAD.

Featured in Forbes this summer, Stevenson is on a mission to inspire a new generation of women and girls to become food heroes to build and sustain healthy communities and economies in communities like Oakland and across the Diaspora and Africa.

“The book highlights the nonprofit WANDA which creates a pipeline and platform to educate, advocate, innovate and celebrate about the role of women and girls leading in creating a better food system,” says Stevenson, a D.C. Food Policy Council Member. “As a first-time author, I have enjoyed the emails and posts from parents, educators and health providers, who resonate with story and character Little WANDA in the bilingual book series.

“We are excited for WANDA connecting young girls to the food system is critical and filling a void in women’s role in agriculture. WANDA’s voice is needed to reconnect us to the land and we support WANDA,” says Dr. Gail Myers, co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc.

“As we work to better educate our girls to become healthy eaters, readers and leaders, we must shine the light on women—WANDA Women—who are making an impact as food leaders in our community like Gail Myers of Freedom’s Farmer’s Market in Oakland to Mrs. Salamatu Garba of Kano, Nigeria—who is highlighted in the first book,” Stevenson says.

The book signing and discussion is free and open to the public. Following the book event, a special dinner with area women food leaders will be held at Ivy Moon restaurant from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to support WANDA. Tickets are available at www.iamwanda.org.

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Gov. Newsom Approves $170 Million to Fast Track Wildfire Resilience

AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.

Published

8 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Courtesy of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Facebook page.

By Bo Tefu
California Black Media

With wildfire season approaching, last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 100, unlocking $170 million to fast-track wildfire prevention and forest management projects — many of which directly protect communities of color, who are often hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.

“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” said Newsom when he announced the funding on April 14.

“We are leaving no stone unturned — including cutting red tape — in our mission to ensure our neighborhoods are protected from destructive wildfires,” he said.

Newsom also signed an executive order suspending certain regulations to allow urgent work to move forward faster.

This funding builds on California’s broader Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, a $2.7 billion effort to reduce fuel loads, increase prescribed burning, and harden communities. The state has also launched new dashboards to keep the public informed and hold agencies accountable.

California has also committed to continue investing $200 million annually through 2028 to expand this effort, ensuring long-term resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities.

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California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

Published

8 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

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By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.

On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”

Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.

“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”

Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.

“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”

Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.

Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.

However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.

In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”

Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.

“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.

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California Holds the Line on DEI as Trump Administration Threatens School Funding

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

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9 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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By Joe W. Bowers Jr
California Black Media

California education leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s directive to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in its K-12 public schools — despite threats to take away billions in federal funding.

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

According to Trainor, “DEI programs discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

On April 3, the DOE escalated the pressure, sending a follow-up letter to states demanding that every local educational agency (LEA) certify — within 10 business days — that they were not using federal funds to support “illegal DEI.” The certification requirement, tied to continued federal aid, raised the stakes for California, which receives more than $16 billion annually in federal education funding.

So far, California has refused to comply with the DOE order.

“There is nothing in state or federal law that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” wrote David Schapira, California’s Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, in an April 4 letter to superintendents and charter school administrators. Schapira noted that all of California’s more than 1,000 traditional public school districts submit Title VI compliance assurances annually and are subject to regular oversight by the state and the federal government.

In a formal response to the DOE on April 11, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond collectively rejected the certification demand, calling it vague, legally unsupported, and procedurally improper.

“California and its nearly 2,000 LEAs (including traditional public schools and charter schools) have already provided the requisite guarantee that its programs and services are, and will be, in compliance with Title VI and its implementing regulation,” the letter says.

Thurmond added in a statement, “Today, California affirmed existing and continued compliance with federal laws while we stay the course to move the needle for all students. As our responses to the United States Department of Education state and as the plain text of state and federal laws affirm, there is nothing unlawful about broad core values such as diversity, equity and inclusion. I am proud of our students, educators and school communities who continue to focus on teaching and learning, despite federal actions intended to distract and disrupt.”

California officials say that the federal government cannot change existing civil rights enforcement standards without going through formal rule-making procedures, which require public notice and comment.

Other states are taking a similar approach. In a letter to the DOE, Daniel Morton-Bentley, deputy commissioner and counsel for the New York State Education Department, wrote, “We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’ But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”