Healthy options pop up in South LA, but old eating habits die hard

June 8, 2015 By Leave a Comment


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Adrian Florido | KPCC (text and audio)
Maya Sugarman | KPCC (photos)

This article was produced for Watts Revisited, a multimedia project launched by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism that explores challenges facing South L.A. as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 Watts Riots. Learn more at www.wattsrevisited.com.

Mary Muñoz, left, and her daughter, Melanie, smell fresh herbs grown at one of Community Services Unlimited's five mini-urban farm sites. | Photo by Maya Sugarman for KPCC

Mary Muñoz, left, and her daughter, Melanie, smell fresh herbs grown at one of Community Services Unlimited’s five mini-urban farm sites. | Photo by Maya Sugarman for KPCC

Each Friday afternoon, the corner of Western Avenue and 39th Street in South L.A. gets a little brighter. Just before 2 o’clock, Rosario Mireles pulls up in a utility truck, unloads crates of organic fruit and vegetables, and sets up a produce stand in the parking lot of a liquor store where addicts used to loiter.

The produce stand popped up not long after a nearby Ralph’s grocery store shut down in 2013, leaving only a Food 4 Less in the area, where neighbors say quality can be hit and miss. It’s one of a constellation of small efforts that nonprofits have launched to increase access to fresh produce across South L.A., where options are limited. They’ve included farmer’s markets, community and school gardens, and corner store conversions. [Read more…]

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South LA Democratic Space: Community Services Unlimited, Inc.

September 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment


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Neelam Sharma, Executive Director of Community Services Unlimited, Inc.

Community Services Unlimited’s mission is to “Serve the people, body and soul,” and their vision is a sustainable food system, constructed from the ground up in South Central LA, that trains local youth, creates real jobs, and builds the local economy.

Earth Day South LA – held at the Normandie Avenue Elementary School – is one of several spaces in which CSU’s visions are put into action. The annual gathering brings the families of South LA together with social justice advocates, urban agriculturalists, chefs, musicians, artists and a diverse set of festival-goers in an inspiring day that celebrates the collective power of community.

Neelam, who has worked in South LA for 16 years, sees Earth Day as a democratic space because “it shows what schools can be in a neighborhood and what they should be. It shows ways in which a school administration can work with the community, ways in which the space can open up and not just shut down once the school activities are over. It can really become an ongoing space for the community to celebrate, share and learn, and that is what Earth Day is for the community of South LA.”

El objetivo de Community Services Unlimited es “Servir a la gente, cuerpo y alma.” Su visión es crear un sistema alimentario sostenible en el Sur de Los Ángeles que también sirva para entrenar a los jóvenes, construir trabajos y fortalecer la economía local.

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