By Megan Burks<\/span><\/p>\n

San Diego Veg Week and CalFresh Challenge Change Diets, Minds<\/strong>
\nThis week, San Diego social media let us in on a lot more than the usual \u201cwho went where with whom\u201d status updates. I found out exactly what some San Diegans were putting in their bellies\u2014Councilwoman Marti Emerald was all about Italian food<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because it\u2019s San Diego Veg Week, which calls on residents to skip meat for seven days to highlight the benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. Many participants shared their highs and lows on Facebook.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the final day of Hunger Action Month, which was aimed at raising awareness about food insecurity in the United States. To do her part, Jennifer Tracy of the San Diego Hunger Coalition challenged herself to eat on a CalFresh budget of $30.52 a week. She recorded her diet and thoughts on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She experienced what many in City Heights do, even shopping at the neighborhood\u2019s farmers market and Albertson\u2019s. On the menu were whole grain cereal, strawberries, almond milk, broccoli and hummus wraps, bean burritos, eggs, peanut butter and honey.<\/p>\n

By the middle of the first day, she could barely wait for dinner. By the second day, her hunger interfered with work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe real issue that keeps nagging me is my anxiety about being hungry\u2014almost as much as the hunger itself. When I finished my food at 2 p.m. on Monday and knew I had nothing else to eat for hours until I got home, I felt nervous. What if I got hungry again? What if I couldn\u2019t focus? Hunger, and the fear of hunger have begun to take up residence in my mind. I don\u2019t know what it is like for people who struggle with this on a regular basis, but in my conversations with people in need of food assistance, it is clear how much this issue weighs on them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n  <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n More than 200,000 households in San Diego County rely on food stamps to buy groceries.<\/p>\n Find the San Diego Hunger Coalition on Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Another Community Garden, Another Mouth Fed<\/strong> \nSoutheastern San Diego has taken City Heights\u2019 lead by chipping away at food insecurity one community garden and farmers market at a time. This week, Mount Hope celebrated the groundbreaking of the area\u2019s second community garden<\/a> on the corner of Market and Denby streets.<\/p>\n \nPhoto Credit: Sam Hodgson<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n After six months, open plots will be available to gardeners from outside the neighborhood, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.<\/p>\n For food news, follow Roots of Change @RootsofChange<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n El Cajon Struggles to Provide Services for Refugees<\/strong> \nMany of City Height\u2019s programs to improve food security grew out of support for the neighborhood\u2019s large refugee population. Its community gardens have comforted residents who were farmers before coming to the United States and its farmers market provides hard-to-find produce for Vietnamese and Burmese refugees.<\/p>\n The neighborhood has been called a refugee hub and has a lot to teach about welcoming people who fled violence and political unrest. El Cajon could be looking for some lessons.<\/p>\n The east county city has experienced an influx of Iraqi refugees and has had trouble meeting their needs<\/a>. Last week, County Supervisor Dianne Jacob organized a meeting with refugee officials and hospital and school representatives.<\/p>\n \u201cThe areas of need basically are employment, health, mental health services, job skills training, English classes, translation services, and unless we get the help needed, the problems will only get worse,\u201d Jacob told KPBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n What advice would you give to El Cajon? What were some of the struggles City Heights faced as refugees began moving into the neighborhood. Which struggles remain? Tell us in a comment<\/a>.<\/p>\n Follow the International Rescue Committee @theIRC<\/a> for information about refugees all over the world.<\/em><\/p>\n Obama Administration Nominates Vietnamese Refugee to Ninth Circuit<\/strong> \nProof of how far refugees can go in the United States: the Obama administration nominated Jacqueline H. Nguyen<\/a>, a Vietnamese American who fled Vietnam as a young girl, to serve on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n According to Multi-American<\/a>, Nguyen\u2019s family lived in a tent city in Camp Pendleton before moving to Los Angeles. Nguyen attended Occidental College and University of California, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Follow Multi-American @Multi_American<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Buul to Share Story of His Journey to Somalia<\/strong> \nLocal refugee leader Abdimalik Buul has won admiration for traveling to Somalia to deliver aid to famine victims<\/a>. He’ll be back in City Heights Sunday to share his experiences at a town hall conference hosted by the Somali Youth League of San Diego. Hear his story 4 p.m. Sunday at the East African Community and Cultural Center, 4061 Fairmount Ave., Suite A.<\/p>\n Find the Somali Youth League of San Diego on Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Megan Burks San Diego Veg Week and CalFresh Challenge Change Diets, Minds This week, San Diego social media let us in on a lot more than the usual \u201cwho went where with whom\u201d status updates. I found out exactly what some San Diegans were putting in their bellies\u2014Councilwoman Marti Emerald was all about Italian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[413,363,412,75,414,71,2101,411,330,16,409,410,221,146,132],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-abdimalik-buul","tag-calfresh","tag-calfresh-challenge","tag-community-garden","tag-el-cajon","tag-food-insecurity","tag-food-justice","tag-hunger-action-month","tag-marti-emerald","tag-refugees","tag-san-diego-hunger-coalition","tag-san-diego-veg-week","tag-somali-youth-league","tag-southeast-san-diego","tag-tweet-city-heights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n