Greetings folks! Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Kim Wong, Soda Tax Grants Coordinator with the SF Department of Public Health (SFDPH). I am responsible for managing Soda Tax grants and supporting grantee organizations through capacity building and technical assistance. I joined the team in late November 2022, just as we were getting ready to wrap up the final year of funding for the inaugural cohort of Sugary Drink Distributor Tax (SDDT) AKA Soda Tax Healthy Communities Grants. I’d love to take this blog space to share highlights from the last six months.
The Healthy Communities Grants Program was envisioned in 2018 by the Sugary Drinks Distributor Tax Advisory Committee (SDDTAC) and brought into fruition in 2019 by SFDPH in partnership with the San Francisco Public Health Foundation (PHF). Beginning in 2019, 11 community-based organizations with annual budgets less than $1 million were selected to receive multi-year funding. The 11 grantees received over $7 million over four years to reach the populations most impacted by the soda industry and support long-term sustainable changes that are health promoting, community building, and equity focused. Additionally, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and exposed the depth of health disparities in San Francisco’s most vulnerable communities, each grantee responded to the increased need and pivoted to provide essential services such as groceries distributions. Soda Tax grantees are hiring and providing stipends directly to community members, working to transform the food system, and pioneering the integration of culturally humble traditional healing practices into public health interventions.
As I set out to catch up on the grantees’ work, I was thoroughly impressed with the Soda Tax grantees as I read through their reports and held Zoom meetings with organizational staff. However, nothing could have better demonstrated the magic of their community building work than when I had the opportunity to experience their programming during site visits this past April. Follow along with me on my tour across San Francisco visiting seven out of the 11 grantee organizations!
My first visit was to the Farm & Kitchen June Jordan School for Equity where Urban Sprouts operates their paid internship and job readiness programs. The 1-acre farm boasts a fruit tree orchard, medicinal and culinary herb gardens, and a solar-powered kitchen made out of a shipping container! Under the shelter of the greenhouse in the company of several hens, I chatted with Herman Yee, Operations Director, and Alicia Lopez-Torres, Program Manager (and Urban Sprouts graduate!), about how the youth interns have been at farmers markets selling products grown and produced at the farm and conducting research around the use of CalFresh incentive programs.
Next on my site tour was Koshland Community Park and Learning Garden in the Western Addition, a space created by community-based advocates in the 70s and where CommunityGrows currently operates the BEETs (Band of Environmentally Educated and Employable Teens) paid internship and environmental justice and gardening program. Kunal Palawat, BEETs Program Manager, showed the native plant and flower plots and explained how they are using indigenous practices to improve the soil’s health. After the garden visit, we went across the street to John Muir Elementary to meet the BEETs interns. Throughout the school year, Kunal facilitated educational workshops with the BEETs, but it was a BEETs takeover day, in which one of the interns had prepared her own workshop on a topic of her choosing for her peers!
Near Civic Center, I met up with Farming Hope’s Andie Sobrepeña, Co-Executive Director and Haley Nielson, Development Director at the newly relocated Refettorio kitchen, a beautiful 5,200 square foot space featuring an open kitchen, office space, and a multi-use area for programming. Farming Hope’s paid apprentices receive 12 weeks of culinary and job readiness training. On the Monday afternoon that I visited, apprentices were buzzing about setting up farm fresh produce and groceries for a client-choice distribution. Meanwhile, more apprentices were in the kitchen preparing pre-packaged nutritious meals to be delivered to nonprofit partners throughout San Francisco. Later that evening, the space would transform into a dining room and the apprentices would serve a full three-course meal to community members, free of charge.
Also providing fresh food access is Bayview Hunters Points Community Advocates (BVHPCA), a grassroots organization addressing the inequitable reality that nearly all produce entering San Francisco passes through Bayview Hunters Point, yet its residents have very little access to this food. BVHPCA leaders Tony Kelly and Anthony Khalil invited me to their shared warehouse space in Bayview to meet their team and see how they are making change. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, SFDPH provided Soda Tax Grantees funding to join efforts to distribute much needed food resources to the community. This funding was a catalyst for BVHPCA to launch an innovative food distribution operation working with local BIPOC farmers to get food directly to Bayview Hunters Point residents through grocery distributions and deliveries, healthy retailers, and healthcare providers. The food distribution operation will serve as critical infrastructure for the planned Bayview Community Co-op, a community-owned grocery store and other community food programs.
After my visit to Bayview, I made my way over to Community Well in the Excelsior where they were also distributing free groceries. However, rather than transforming the local food system, Community Well focuses on transformative holistic healing. The community-based wellness center offers sliding scale holistic services (herbalism, acupuncture, counseling) as well as free and low-cost programs including grocery distribution and H3: Happy, Healing & Healthy (H3), their transformative lifestyle change program. As co-founders Jen Moran and Jennifer Navarro-Marroquin gave me a tour of the center, I could feel the supportive and peaceful space they have created for community healing.
Finally, I visited Instituto Familiar de la Raza in the Mission where I attended the launch event for their Spanish language podcast, Buen Provecho, de Nuestras Raíces Saludables, a 10-episode series promoting healthy eating and active living for the Latinx, Chicana, and Indígena community living in San Francisco. Over fresh fruit and tamales I chatted with the team, Carlos Izaguirre, Ingrid Lopez, Francisco Icala, and Arturo Vega-Fernandez, about how the audio format of a podcast was a helpful and culturally appropriate way to disseminate information to the Indígena community, in which literacy rates are low. The podcast is also translated and transcribed into Indígena languages and English.
On May 11th, SFDPH hosted a Celebration Brunch honoring the 11 grantees and their broad and impactful achievements. Former San Francisco Supervisor, Eric Mar, one of the key policymakers who got the Soda Tax on the ballot, gave remarks commending the grantees. We were also joined by San Francisco Health Officer and SFDPH Population Health Division Director, Dr. Susan Philip, who shared how the community empowering work of the Soda Tax Grantees is a cornerstone of advancing health equity. Over delicious food, laughter, and tears, grantees shared their highlights and wisdom with their colleagues. It was a wonderful way to celebrate an exceptional cohort of organizations and the passionate leaders behind them. Congratulations to the Healthy Communities Grantees!
2019 – 2023 Soda Tax Healthy Communities Grantees:
3rd Street Youth Center & Clinic
Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates
San Francisco African American Faith-Based Coalition