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As Jews worldwide prepare to celebrate next week their liberation from
slavery, a group of Los Angeles Jews went to Boyle Heights on Sunday to
ask that variation of their traditional Passover Seder question.
The answer, however, did not recount Jewish oppression in Egypt as is
customary. Activists from major Jewish organizations instead focused on
what they see as a modern injustice afflicting their fellow Angelenos,
marking the day with a new push to bring quality grocery markets and
healthful food to underserved neighborhoods such as East Los Angeles.
"We want to transform the food deserts of Los Angeles into a promised
land of access to healthy food," said Elissa Barrett, executive
director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance, which helped organize a
tour Sunday to showcase the problem. "Food, liberation and sustenance
are closely intertwined in Judaism."
Jewish community groups aim to broaden the growing local and national
campaigns to attract more supermarkets to poor neighborhoods, where
limited access to healthful food has been linked to obesity, diabetes
and other diseases. Programs are sprouting up in Louisiana, New York,
Michigan and Pennsylvania.
–Teresa Watanabe in Boyle Heights
Photo: Kinneret Klein, 7, eats an apple at a meeting of Jewish community
groups at Breed Street Shul in Boyle Heights. They want to boost access
to healthful food. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times / March 21, 2010)