By Megan Burks
First Lady Celebrates New Northgate Market Locations
Several national news publications mentioned City Heights this week because of its newest supermarket, Northgate Gonzales Market.
In a tour of Southern California, First Lady Michelle Obama touted the supermarket chain’s efforts to bring fresh groceries to low-income communities deemed food deserts. The company’s store in City Heights was one of its first stores to be built with help from the California FreshWorks Fund.
The fund—a partnership of The California Endowment, banks and health organizations aimed at bringing fresh food to rural and urban food deserts—will soon help Northgate open stores in Inglewood and South Los Angeles.
Densely populated City Heights was selected for one of the new markets because it lacks enough grocery retail space to serve all of its residents. A recent study shows residents in the area had just 1.64 square feet of retail space per person; the industry standard is 3 square feet per person.
Many researchers and nonprofits point to a lack of fresh produce and saturation of fast food restaurants and convenience stores as factors in higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease in inner-city communities.
Some have contested this theory, however. A 2011 study found access to grocery stores didn’t necessarily improve diets.
Follow the California FreshWorks Fund @CAFreshWorks
[Disclaimer: Speak City Heights is funded by The California Endowment but operates as an independent news collaborative.]
New Faces Coming to City Heights Business District
The City Heights Business Association announced this week it will acknowledge local students who have excelled in math and science by printing their photos on street banners. The banners will appear in May throughout the City Heights business district.
The organization also updated its list of programs and events for youth this week.
Find the City Heights Business Association on Facebook.
Dual Immersion Could Close Latino Achievement Gap
Speak City Heights partner KPBS ran a story this morning on dual language immersion programs. Educators say the programs, which teach core curriculum in two languages, could help close the Latino achievement gap, if they were better supported by the state and federal governments.
In San Diego County, just 46 percent of English learners pass the English portion of the California High School Exit Exam. Just 62 percent pass the math portion. Many of these students learn almost exclusively in English.
Students in bilingual education, however, score much better on tests, surpassing their peers by the end of elementary school.
But such programs haven’t been supported. In 1998, California voters put strict limitations of bilingual education with Proposition 227. The federal government’s focus on standardized tests through No Child Left Behind also means few schools are willing to adopt dual immersion programs, which see lower test scores during students’ earlier years.
This story is one in a series of KPBS articles focusing on education for English language learners:
California’s English Language Learner Programs Criticized
Are Too Many California Kids Labeled English Language Learners?
Follow KPBS @KPBS