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East Palo Alto Community Celebrates Successful Farmers Market Season (EPA Today, 12/15/08)

“My husband and I have eaten fresh, healthy and locally grown for many years,” regular shopper Keisha Evans said. “So it is wonderful to have the East Palo Alto Farmers Market right here. The crops are fresh and they augment what we have in our garden and trade with friends.” Resident Luis Guzmán added, “it has brought some very positive change in our community by bringing people together and offering diverse and healthy fresh products.” Read more.

A community mobilizes to launch its own farmers' market (Palo Alto Weekly, 4/27/08)

East Palo Alto hasn't had a supermarket within its borders since the early 1970s, but it does have two McDonalds — just 1.5 miles apart. Other dots on the fast-food map are a nearby Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Express. To buy fresh produce, residents have to travel outside the city's boundaries or depend on the limited selections on corner stores' shelves. Read more.

All You Can't Eat (Metro, 4/23/08)

At the turn of the last century, there were 1,000 1-acre farms in Ravenswood, a small rural community bordering the southwestern tip of the San Francisco Bay. A thousand families owned their own farms, which included chickens to fill their pots and fertilize the crops. The families sold eggs and produce to cooperatives that sold them to the folks in the cities. After World War II, Japanese-Americans freed from internment camps settled in, then African Americans, and then Latinos. As the new century wore on, the town underwent transformations and name changes becoming what is today East Palo Alto. Somewhere in the process, the town lost touch with its agricultural history—as did most American communities. Read more.