California Center for Rural Policy

The direct connection between a healthy community and healthy food makes it critical to understand the Del Norte and Adjacent Tribal Land’s food system. A food system includes all of the people and processes that are involved in taking food from seed to table. The quality, cost and availability of the foods in every community – at stores, schools and hospitals – are determined by the food system serving it.

by Danielle Stubblefield, MS and Connie Stewart

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What makes a worry free and productive workday? If you’re a parent, knowing that your child is in safe hands. If you’re an employer, knowing that your employees will be present and aware for their full workday. Reliable child care takes care of both needs and is an essential support to local industries. However, quality child care has been threatened with decreases in public funding and providers leaving the field.

by Melissa Jones, Esq., Health Policy Analyst; Wendy Rowan, MA; & Connie Stewart

At the close of business, what happens to the salads and sides behind glass at the grocers deli counter? Or the tasty unserved leftovers from a catered lunch meeting? Despite the growing number of hungry people in the Redwood Coast region, edible food is ending up as compost or in the trash. Food is going by the ton into the waste stream, but this can be decreased if people donate rather than throw out edible food.

by Melissa Jones, Esq., Health Policy Analyst

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From the brief:

Del Norte County and the adjacent tribal lands (DNATL) is one of fourteen places in California participating in Building Healthy Communities (BHC), an initiative of The California Endowment (TCE). The goal of BHC is to “support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn.” For more information about BHC please visit http://www.calendow.org/healthycommunities/.

Del Norte County and the adjacent tribal lands (DNATL) is one of fourteen places in California participating in Building Healthy Communities (BHC), an initiative of The California Endowment (TCE). The goal of BHC is to “support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn.” This report provides a set of community health indicators intended to give a snapshot of the past and current conditions in Del Norte County and to help guide and assess outcomes resulting from improvement efforts.

Every year, thousands of tons of food enter the waste stream and must be shipped out of Humboldt County — instead of being used towards its intended function (to feed people), as evidenced by food insecure families in the area. There are environmental impacts as well. Producing food consumes water, another vital resource, and estimates show that more than one-quarter of water use is allocated towards food that is ultimately wasted. Aside from water, wasted food accounts for 300 million barrels of oil per year, or approximately 4% of U.S. consumption.

Building Healthy Communities (BHC) is an initiative of The California Endowment (TCE). The goal of BHC is to “support the development of communities where kids and youth are healthy, safe and ready to learn.” Del Norte County and adjacent Tribal lands is one of the fourteen places embarking on this ten-year initiative with TCE. As part of the planning process, the California Center for Rural Policy (CCRP) prepared this report of past and current educational achievement data for Del Norte County.

Due to the economic downturn in 2007, many non-profit agencies are re-evaluating the systems they have in place to help the community. Humboldt County has been identified as having one of the highest rates of food insecurity and hunger statewide, highlighting the need for agencies that provide food for low-income people and families. One such agency is Food for People, Inc., the food bank for Humboldt County located in Eureka, California. Once economically stable families are now in need of assistance due to unemployment and increased food costs.

From the report: