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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 2016)
FEBRUARY 10, 2016 Portland and Seattle Volume XXXVIII No. 19 25 CENTS News ...............................3,9,10 A & E .....................................6-7 Opinion ...................................2 Race and Hollywood .......7 Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11 CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW SKANNER NEWS FILE PHOTO PARENT INVOLVEMENT The city has adopted a plan for the distribution of $20 million set aside for affordable housing last fall. City Adopts Housing Strategy D istribution of government dollars often makes for a contentious de- bate. But the pledge of $20 million in Portland Development Com- mission funds for affordable housing was one of the more talked about issues in 2014. That move — a response to concerns about affordable housing in the area — led to the adoption of the North/North- east Housing Strategy and an accom- panying oversight committee charged with creating a plan of action for the funds. Though the Portland City Council voted unanimously Jan. 28 to adopt the plan, which details how the dollars See HOUSING on page 3 Movies Opening this Week Reviews by Kam Williams page 6 Lack of Swift Action Due to Cop Code of Silence page 9 South Shore School student Badhatu Abdalla is welcomed to school Feb. 8 by more than 200 Black men. The welcoming of the students kicked off a day of events celebrating National African American Parent Involvement Day. The men who participated included members of the Seattle Police and Fire departments, college professors, elected officials, parents and community members. Will Farming be the Future of Food Justice? Advocates ask to change food system to include more Black producers By Arashi Young Of The Skanner News C onversations about African Americans and food often veer toward issues of diet, price and culture. The problem of getting low- cost, healthy food to Black communities dominates the dialogue. At a food justice work- shop in January, organizer Edward Hill urged attend- ees to rethink the entire food system from seed to beyond the plate. The ses- sion, “Culture, Crops, Cash, Commerce: The Future of Food Justice,” proposed a new food network that spe- cifically benefits African Americans. Hill, the executive direc- tor of the non-profit or- ganization Groundwork Portland, said food justice has to push beyond food access efforts. “Food justice seeks to en- sure the benefits and the risks of where and when and how food is grown, produced, transported, distributed, accessed… are eaten and shared fairly,” Hill said. He went on to describe the current food system as a network of food busi- nesses. These are farms, food processing plants, restaurants, distributors, farmer’s markets, grocery stores, consumers and waste management indus- tries. “Those are all industries. It’s all money. It’s probably half the world’s economy right there in all of those associated opportunities,” Hill said. But these opportunities aren’t distributed equal- ly along race and gender lines. According to a 2011 report, “The Color of Food,” from the Applied Research Center, women and people of color are overrepresent- ed in low-wage jobs in the Event to Honor First Heart Donor Fundraiser pays homage to Black History Month and Bobby Olive, who donated his heart in 1985 By Christen McCurdy Of The Skanner News W hen Belinda Olive-Beltran lost her brother in 1985, she didn’t expect to gain anoth- er family in the process. Bobby Olive was shot at the age of 27 during an apartment burglary, but had been struggling to turn his life around. A father of three with a pregnant fiancée, Olive was about to start a new job when he died. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Olive-Beltran told The Skanner News. When doctors told Olive’s mother, Martha Van Arsdale, that her son’s brain had died, they also said there was a man who was waiting for a heart donation and could die soon if he didn’t receive a heart for trans- plant. See HEART on page 3 food system, holding jobs such as food servers and factory workers in food processing plants. White men dominate the higher paying management and ownership roles in the food network. For African Americans, the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow directly affects the present day food sys- tem. In the work session, Hill talked about the his- torical obstacles affecting Black farmers. Hill said there were 100,000 Black farmers who were farming more than15 See FOOD on page 3 PHOTO COURTESY OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST TRANSPLANT BANK By Donovan M. Smith Of The Skanner News PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED Plan to give preference to those most affected by gentrification Bobby Olive, who died in 1985, was Oregon’s first heart donor.
