Lark Galloway-Gilliam, South LA health activist, dies at 61



Lark Galloway-Gilliam | re-code LA

Lark Galloway-Gilliam | re:code LA

Lark Galloway-Gilliam, the founder of activist organization Community Health Councils who pushed for quality health and healthcare in South L.A., has died. She was 61. Among many accomplishments, the native Angeleno helped create an ordinance limiting fast food eateries, recruited grocery stores featuring nutritious options, led the charge against a toxic oil field and brought health education to underserved groups.

An obituary in the Los Angeles touches on the impact of her legacy, cultivated since founding her nonprofit in the wake of the 1992 L.A. Riots:

“As the founder of Community Health Councils, Galloway-Gilliam worked with lawmakers, corporate executives and residents to tackle institutional problems that have plagued South L.A. Along the way, she helped cultivate the next generation of activists by hosting workshops to teach residents how to protect their community.”

[Read more…]

Despite odds, a boost in heart health for South LA



By Belinda Cai, Diana Crandall, Bentley Curtis, Taylor Haney, Daniel Jimenez, Kevin Mallory, Ken Mashinchi, Jonathan Tolliver and Yingzhi Yang

Zumba class at the Baldwin Hills Mall. | Daniel Jimenez

Zumba class at the Baldwin Hills Mall. | Daniel Jimenez

The Baldwin Hills Crenshaw community is changing shape.

The South L.A. neighborhood has received various grants within the past several years to start programs aimed at reducing its relatively high rates of diabetes, heart disease and obesity while improving access to nutrition and basic health services.

For many people, these efforts have worked. Take Debra Finley, who signed up for free Zumba classes through the BFit program at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

“I was 195 pounds,” said Finley. “Now I’m 145.”

It is still unclear whether overall health outcomes are improving in the area. Many of these programs are less than a decade old, and are being pushed into neighborhoods that remain swamped with fast food restaurants and liquor stores. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 8 percent of area food retailers in the area are considered healthy.

Yet, many positive trends are emerging. [Read more…]

South LA residents create solutions to provide healthy food options



IMG_1430July 12 was a happy day for residents of the King Estates neighborhood in South L.A. Three weeks after the Ralphs supermarket on Western Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard closed, community members of the local nonprofit, Community Coalition and Community Services Unlimited opened “Fresh Fridays” Produce Stand so that neighbors would have a place to get fresh fruits and vegetables.

The opening took place on the corner of 39th Street and Western Avenue, in the parking lot of Century Market, a liquor store that just three years ago was the target of a protest by residents for being a public nuisance. The store, which has since worked to maintain community standards and meet city ordinances, has agreed to host the produce stand every Friday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. [Read more…]

A healthier South LA: Food options increase while obesity decreases



South Los Angeles has been plagued with having the recognition of being among one of the most obese areas in L.A. However, the community is slowly finding a cure for its plague.

In 2011, about 33 percent of adults in South L.A. were obese, which is about 12 percentage points higher than Los Angeles County’s overall rate, according to reports by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

The region has long suffered from a lack of diversity in dining options. About 70 percent of the restaurants in South L.A. are fast food restaurants, far higher than areas such as West L.A., where the figure is about 40 percent, according to the Community Health Councils, a non-profit, community-based health education and policy organization. City officials have taken measures in recent years to address the problem, passing a fast food moratorium that restricts the building of stand-alone fast food restaurants in South L.A.

Since the start of the ban in 2007, obesity rates among adults in South L.A. have fallen by about three percentage points, according to reports by the L.A. County Department of Public Health. The decrease marked the largest fall in obesity for any area in L.A. County since 2007 and was the first decrease for South L.A. in over a decade. [Read more…]

Obesity concerns still rank high in South LA



By Daniella Segura

Moving to South Los Angeles from her home of 18 years in Los Feliz, Marie-Alise de Marco expected many changes, but the lack of healthy food options in her new community was not one of them.

De Marco, 50, a manager at the Crenshaw Farmer’s Market, said she has always been health conscious, making sure what she makes for her husband and two boys are healthy. She tries to buy organic foods to prepare for her family and avoids other foods infused with pesticides and hormones. image

De Marco recalled how she went to a Ralph’s market in South L.A. to buy groceries for her family, soon after moving to the area in the fall of 2009. There was no organic milk or blue cheese that she wanted.

“It was just mind boggling that there was no choice,” she said. “There was nothing healthy, nothing organic…if you would have taken the name Ralph’s off that store, I wouldn’t have known I was at a Ralph’s.”

De Marco isn’t the only one affected by the lack of healthy options in South L.A. The region has long suffered from a lack of diversity in dining options.

About 70 percent of the restaurants in South L.A. are fast food restaurants, far higher than areas such as West L.A., where the figure is about 40 percent, according to the Community Health Councils, a non-profit, community-based health education and policy organization.

Paul Simon, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, said the abundance of fast food restaurants contributes to the high obesity rates in South L.A.

In 2011, about 33 percent of adults in South L.A. were obese, which is an estimated 12 percentage points higher than Los Angeles County’s overall rate, according to reports by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

“We think [the obesity rate] reflects the types of foods that are available in that community,” Simon said. “It’s a very low income area of the county, and it seems to be filled with foods that are prone to making people overweight.”

City officials have recently taken measures to address the problem; passing a fast food moratorium that restricts the building of stand-alone fast food restaurants in South L.A.

Since the start of the ban in 2007, obesity rates among adults in South L.A. have fallen by about 3 percentage points, according to reports by the L.A. County Department of Public Health. The decrease marked the largest fall in obesity for any area in L.A. County since 2007. Yet up until 2011, South L.A. had the highest obesity rates for L.A. County.

Antelope Valley is now marked with the unwelcome distinction as the county’s most obese area, according to a report by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

Breanna Morrison, a health policy analyst at Community Health Councils, said a number of factors helped prompt the decrease in obesity, including the fast food ban.

“Part of the idea behind the fast food regulation was to not concede to allow McDonald’s and these other restaurants to monopolize the very little undeveloped land that we have left in South L.A.,” Morrison said. “Instead, let’s preserve it for the development of healthier alternatives.”

Since 2007, there have been six new grocery stores erected in South L.A., Morrison said. Among the newly built grocery stores are a Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Market on Adams Boulevard and a Farm Fresh Ranch Market on Vermont Avenue.

She also said that from 2007 to 2009, the percentage of adults who consumed fast food in South L.A. four to five times per week fell about two percentage points, according to surveys done by the Community Health Councils and L.A. County Department of Public Health.

Morrison said the fast food ban was a good first step toward making South L.A. a healthier community, but she says more needs to be done, including building more parks and other recreation areas, which directly deal with the problem of obesity.

“What the policy has done is shown that the community is concerned about health,” Morrison said. “The community is the one that will drive the change to make South L.A. a healthier place. It’s all about them.”

The fight for Fresh & Easy in South Los Angeles goes to City Hall



South L.A. residents may agree that more fresh food grocery stores are needed in the area, but some are concerned that a proposed Fresh & Easy on Crenshaw Boulevard and 52nd Street is defying the rules.

Winnifred Jackson, President of Hyde Park Organizational Partnership for Empowerment (HOPE), says the proposed Fresh & Easy is flagrantly ignoring the requirements of the Crenshaw Corridor Specific Plan. The plan came into effect in November 2004 as a way of ensuring “a balance of commercial land uses,” and cohesion between residential and commercial space. In an open letter to City Watch, Jackson explained the resistance to the proposed Fresh & Easy:

“Fresh & Easy has refused to comply with the pedestrian oriented design standards of our Crenshaw Corridor Specific Plan, as they would be required to do in any Westside community,” wrote Jackson.
“Instead of respecting our Crenshaw community’s Specific Plan and treating us like equals, Fresh & Easy has sought to divide our community, mischaracterize HOPE’s position, and make residents fear standing by our community’s basic planning standards.”

On Wednesday morning City Hall will host a hearing to address the proposed Fresh & Easy on Crenshaw Boulevard and 52nd Street, following an appeal against the development plans submitted by HOPE.

City Council Hearing on Fresh & Easy’s Proposal for a Neighborhood Market in South LA
Wednesday, December 8th 2010, 10:00 AM
Council Chambers City Hall Room #340
200 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles 90012

Residents who support the Fresh & Easy proposal as it stands can join the Community Health Councils counter-appeal. A bus service will be offered from CHC headquarters to City Hall and Back on Wednesday morning. RSVP to Tanishia Wright with Community Health Councils at tanishia[at]chc-inc.org or 323.295.9372 x225.