[asia-apec 1770] US Representatives To Join Food First Bus Tour

[Anuradha Mittal]

Second Media Advisory for May 29-31   Contact:   
                                      Nick Parker: (510)654-4400 X 229
                                      David Lerner, (212) 260-5000       
                                         
                                     Shonna Carter, (212) 260-5000       
                                              
                               
U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee, Nancy Pelosi and Earl Hilliard to Join 
Food First on Anti-Poverty Bus Tour in California

While a Tax Cut for the Wealthy is Pushed Through the Senate, Three Day 
Tour to Hear from People Struggling to Make Ends Meet

(Oakland, CA, May 22, 2001:) U.S. Representatives Barbara Lee (CA), 
Nancy Pelosi (CA) Earl Hilliard (AL) and other members of the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus will join California state and local 
policy makers to meet with communities in the Bay Area as part of an 
"Economic Human Rights Bus Tour." This distinguished delegation will 
kick off the tour in Oakland on May 29, 2001, ending in Salinas on May 
31, 2001.

The delegation will visit: a soup kitchen at St. Mary's Center, Oakland; 
Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, the largest social service 
provider in the Bay Area; the Day Labor Program, an immigrant labor 
rights and support organization; St. Anthony's Foundation soup kitchen; 
an environmental justice coalition at the Bay View Hunters Point; an 
after school program at Everett Middles Schoolís Beacon Center, an inner 
city middle school in San Francisco; United Farm Workers field sites in 
Salinas and Watsonville; and several other locations.
 
The tour will highlight the dire need for national policy initiatives 
that could make a real impact on the quality of peoples' lives. These 
stops will feature personal testimonies around economic human rights 
violations from veterans, single mothers, immigrant farm workers and 
members of living wage, workers rights and health care coalitions.

The tour is calling for:
• Adequate funding for a living wage, child care, health care, and 
education;
• A reordering of federal priorities toward meeting the needs of our 
nation's poor;
• Measures to address the relationships between race and poverty;
• Recognition and implementation of economic human rights including the 
right to feed oneself, right to housing, and the right to just and 
fair conditions of employment.

Supported by over 200 groups across the country and endorsed by the 
Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Economic Human Rights Bus Tour is 
organized by Food First/ Institute for Food and Development Policy and 
represents a powerful grassroots anti-poverty movement rooted in the 
promotion of human rights.

TOUR PARTICIPANTS:

Rep. Barbara Lee (CA), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA), Rep. Earl Hilliard (AL), 
Rep. Dick Gephardt - invited (MO), Supervisor Aaron Peskin (San 
Francisco), Supervisor Matt Gonzalez (San Francisco), Council Member 
Nancy Nadel (Oakland), Council Member Kriss Worthington (Berkeley), 
Mayor Tim Fitzmaurice (Santa Cruz), Eric Mar (SF School Board)

Carl Pope, Executive Director, The Sierra Club; Medea Benjamin, 
Co-Founder, Global Exchange; Cheri Honkala, Director, Kensington Welfare 
Rights Union; Paul Hawken, Author and Co-founder of Smith & Hawken; 
Boona Cheema, Executive Director, BOSS

TOUR SCHEDULE:

Tuesday, May 29, 2001 (Oakland, California)

12:00-1:00 pm: Kick-off at St. Maryís Center
Location: 635 22nd Street, Oakland
Speakers: Members of Congress; Bus Tour Organizers; Council Member Nancy 
Nadel; Carol Johnson (Executive Director, St. Mary's Center); Cheri 
Honkala (Director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union); Roger Normand 
(Center for Economic and Social Rights); Wilson Riles, Jr. (Director, 
American Friends Service Committee)
Focus:  Increasing Hunger and Homelessness in Oakland

1:00-2:30 pm: Walking Tour of Low-Income Housing Sites
Location: Begin/end at St. Maryís Center ñ 635 22nd Street, Oakland
Speakers: Member of Congress; Council Member Kriss Worthington 
(Berkeley); Boona Cheema (Executive Director, Building Opportunities for 
Self Sufficiency; Kendra Wilson (Community Organizer, BOSS); Residents 
of low-income housing (Melinda Cooper, Freeman Davis)
Focus: Mayor Brown's Gentrification of Oakland and its Impact on 
Affordable Housing 

2:45-4:15 pm: Congressional Hearing on Hunger and Poverty at St. 
Maryís Center
Location: 635 22nd Street, Oakland
Speakers: Rep. Barbara Lee (CA); Rep Richard Gephardt (MO)-invited; 
Rep. Earl Hilliard (AL); Carl Pope (Executive Diretor, Sierra Club), 
Jessica Bartholow (Alameda County Community Food Bank); Weekly clients 
of St. Mary's Center and Alameda County Community Food Bank (Lynn 
Hoberg, Cherry Jackson, James Abner); Bus Tour organizers
Focus: Human Rights to an Adequate Standard of Living

5:30-7:00 pm: Public Event, First Congregational Church - UCC
Location: Corner of Harrison and 27th Street, Oakland
Speakers: Members of Congress, Bus Tour Organizers; Mayor Shirley Dean 
(Berkeley); Carl Pope (Executive Director, Sierra Club); Mark Weisbrot 
(Director,Center for Economic and Policy Research); Sarah Zaidi (Center 
for Economic and Social Rights); Paul Hawken (Founder Smith & Hawken, 
Noted Author); Community members facing hunger and a lack of housing 
(Ken Moshesh, Mary McAdams, David Earl Surrell, Artensia Barry); Ethyl 
LongñScott (Director, Womenís Economic Agenda Project). 
Focus: Income Inequalities, Growing Hunger and Poverty, Welfare Reform 
are Violations of Most Basic Human Rights

Wednesday, May 30  (San Francisco, California)

9:30-11:00 am: Site Visit at Day Labor Program
Location: Franklin Square Park, 17th & Hampshire Street, San Francisco
Speakers: Rep. Earl Hilliard (AL); Hina Shah (Attorney, Asian Law 
Caucus); Francisco Herrera (Program Director, Interfaith Coalition for 
Immigrant Rights); Renee Saucedo (Director, Day Labor Program); and 
non-standard workers organizing for a living wage and basic rights
Focus: The Need for Protection of Workersí Rights in a Global Economy

11:30-1:30 pm: Site Visit at Saint Anthony's Foundation
Location: 121 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco
Speakers: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA); Martina Gillis (Director, Coalition 
for Ethical Welfare Reform); Paul Boden (Executive Director, Coalition 
on Homelessness); Juliet Twomey ( St. Anthony's Foundation); Riva Enteen 
(Regional Representative, National Lawyers Guild); Cheri Honkala 
(Director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union); Clients of Homeless 
Prenatal Program (Kimberly Chacon, Stephanie Hughes)
Focus: Growing Hunger and Homelessness

2:30-4:15 pm: Site Visit at Heronís Head Park, Bayview Hunterís Point
Location: Pier 98, Eastern end of Cargo Way, San Francisco
Speakers: Supervisor Sophie Maxwell (SF); Supervisor Aaron Peskin (SF); 
Frances Payne (Regional Representative, Neighbor to Neighbor); Dana 
Lanza (Director, Literacy for Environmental Justice); Youth participants 
in neighborhood leadership program (Craig Cohen, Sasha Galloway-Bonce); 
Health provider from local hospital
Focus: Environmental Justice and Crisis in Healthcare

5:30-7:00 pm: Site visit at Community Bridges Beacon at Everett Middle 
School
Location: 450 Church Street (between 16th and 17th Streets), San 
Francisco
Speakers: Rep. Earl Hilliard (AL); Supervisor Matt Gonzalez (SF); School 
Board Member Eric Mar (SF); John Avalos (Coleman Advocates for Children 
and Youth); Kate Washburn (WILD for Human Rights); Anthony Hill 
(Director, Community Bridges Beacon); Perla Nolosca (Community 
organizer, Youth Force Coalition); Greg Zhovreboff (Student delegate to 
SF Board of Ed.); Colin Rajah (Executive Director, JustAct- Youth 
Action for Global Justice); Students, parent, and staff of inner-city 
public schools
Focus: Education Equity and the Need for Increased Funding of 
Community-Based Programs for Youth and Their Families

Thursday May 31 (Central Coast, California)

8:00 am: Depart for Central Coast

10:30-11:00 am: Site visit to United Farm Workers field site, 
Davenport, CA
Location: Swanton Berry Farms, 5221 Coast Road, Davenport. 	
Speakers: Rep. Earl Hilliard (AL); Roberto de la Rosa, Jr. (Regional 
Representative, United Farm Workers); Peter Rosset (Co-Director, Food 
First); Margret Reeves (Pesticide Action Network ñ North America); Farm 
workers impacted by unsafe working conditions and poor labor standards
Focus: Working Conditions of Farm Workers

12:00-1:30 pm: Site visit to La Manzana Center, Watsonville, CA
Location: Corner of Main & West Lake Street, Watsonville
Speakers: Council Member Ramon Gomez (Watsonville); Mayor Tim 
Fitzmaurice (Santa Cruz); Luis Lopez (Regional Director, United Farm 
Workers); Monica Moore (Executive Director, PANNA); Workers and 
community members organizing for basic human rights
Focus: Impact of Income Inequalities on Working, Immigrant Families

2:00-3:30 pm: Community Hearing, Salinas, CA
Location: Teamsters 890 Meeting Hall, Corner of Sanborn & East Market 
Street, Salinas
Speakers: Rep. Earl Hilliard (AL); Juan Uranga (Director, Center for 
Community Advocacy); Paul Johnston (Organizing Coordinator, Citizenship 
Project); Sarah Zaidi (Center for Economic and Social Rights); Fritz 
Conle (Organizing Director, Teamsters 890); Community members harassed 
by authorities regarding immigration status; Women farm workers 
organizing to address disproportionate impacts of human rights abuses 
upon women 
Focus: Discrimination and Inequity Faced by Immigrant Workers

4:15-4:55 pm: Site Visit to Dorrance Ranch, Hollister, CA
Location:  535 Shore Road, off of Highway 25, immediately after Brianís 
Ranch
Speakers: Rep. Earl Hilliard (AL); Anuradha Mittal (Co-Director, Food 
First); Diego Vasquez (Co-founder, AMO Organics); Cecilia Barros 
(Co-founder, Lideres Campesinas); Immigrant organic farmers
Focus: Immigrant Farm Workerís Organic Agriculture Cooperative

For more information on the tour please contact Nick Parker at (510) 
654-4400 ext. 229, 510-469-5228 (Cell) or David Lerner at (212) 
260-5000.

###

Join the fight against hunger. For more information contact foodfirst at foodfirst.org.

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