Historic ALL IN Programs
Basic Needs
Recipe4Health
As part of ALL IN, created the Recipe4Health (R4H) was launched program in 2019 to provide medically supportive foods to low-income residents experiencing food insecurity and/or are diagnosed with, or at risk of developing, diet-responsive related chronic conditions such as prediabetes, diabetes, depression, and hypertension. This nationally recognized, award-winning healthcare model integrates food-based interventions into healthcare settings (“Food as Medicine”) to treat, prevent and reverse chronic conditions; to address food/nutrition insecurity and other social determinants of health; and to improve health and racial equity.
Recipe4Health centers the question: “Where does the food come from in ‘food as medicine’?” It answers this question by purposely prioritizing the sourcing and supply of local/hyperlocal “regenerative and organic” food to healthcare’s demand for “food as medicine”. By connecting the dots between “food as medicine” and sourcing local/regional “organic and regenerative agriculture”, this movement builds equity and force multipliers for health: individual/community human health, local economic community wealth, and soil and planetary health.
Recipe4Health is one of the first “food as medicine” programs using medically supportive food and nutrition supports in California to become a Medi-Cal (Medicaid) covered service under California Advancing and Innovating (CalAIM) initiative. With this important milestone achieved, Alameda County’s Recipe4Health program was transitioned from ALL IN to the Health Care Services Agency (HCSA) on July 1, 2022, to ensure long term support.
For more information about R4H, please check out their website.
Alameda County Communities Connect: A COVID-19 Health Equity Initiative
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, ALL IN was challenged to determine how to best support community engagement across neighborhoods in Alameda County. Through established relationships with community partners, ALL IN began to provide capacity building support for community organizations serving the most COVID-19 impacted neighborhoods of West Oakland, Fruitvale/San Antonio, East Oakland, Ashland and Cherryland, and South Hayward. Our engagement has helped community organizations secure funding from Alameda County to support emergency food distribution, contact tracing and case investigation, outreach and education, and testing. ALL IN’s engagement with community has built trust, launched new partnerships, and informed federal advocacy efforts for re-establishing the USDA’s Farm to Families food box program in Alameda County. ALL IN staff has
- Launched convenings and participated in established community-led spaces to glean information on the real-time, on-the-ground needs of residents and community organizations who quickly pivoted to meet the basic needs of individuals and families.
- Written grants for community partners providing emergency food distribution.
- Advised on budgets and facilitated access to funding opportunities.
- Supported case management and navigation for community partners supporting resident access to resources.
- Deepened relationships with County agencies and community partners.
- Connected County staff with community partners to support the response across sectors (e.g., transportation and vaccination operations).
- Provided space for community organizations to discuss priorities for short and long term strategies that promote equitable recovery in neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
Emergency Food Distribution
Early in the pandemic, ALL IN developed a food distribution model in partnership with the DDF Food Hub that not only provided emergency food and fresh locally sourced produce but also provided small business grants to local food businesses to prepare healthy meals for distribution to families in need. These $15,000 grant awards to small businesses in unincorporated Alameda County, Hayward, and San Leandro helped keep businesses open and produced meals for food insecure individuals and families. To support this food distribution model, ALL IN secured funding from the Stupski Foundation, McGovern Foundation, and local Community Development Block Grant funds. Leadership from ALL IN seeded the capacity for DDF Food Hub to secure funding from Alameda County to support emergency food distribution.
Convening Partners
Through our deepened relationships, ALL IN has become a trusted partner among community organizations and a go-to for County agency staff looking for information on community needs and connecting with resources outside traditional County structure. ALL IN has recently served as a neutral convener among community organizations and collaboratives to explore recovery and resilience priorities (e.g., food security/justice, health and wellness, economic recovery and relief, and outreach/education) and where there may be areas of alignment. We engaged collaboratives and organizations from Fruitvale and San Antonio, South Hayward, Livermore, Unincorporated Eden Area, and West and East Oakland. Here are a few key points we have learned in these convenings:
- We must focus on community assets and not deficits.
- We have an opportunity to leverage and support the community workforce established through COVID-19 response work.
- Our strategies must move beyond funding cycles and competitive contracts.
- We must explore ways to reduce the administrative burden on community organizations.
- We must promote transparency and accountability through common metrics.
- Our work must evolve from emergency response to long-term support.
Place Based
Policy Lab in Oakland
With supplemental funding from the Hellman Foundation, ALL IN designed a contract to establish a community-based policy platform which built upon the work of the Healthy Food Champions and Community Engagement Hub. A grassroots organization, In-Advance, was selected through a competitive County bidding process. In-Advance worked with Neighborhood Steering Committee members Trybe, Mandela Partners, and Street Level Health Center to engage the community on shifting the system towards a healthier food environment.
In September 2020, Resident Leaders connected with a sample of participants from the SABA Grocers Food Card program to learn more about their ideas for stores and neighborhoods as a food eco-system and how local government can support community transformation. Through a community organizing approach and lessons learned from the SABA Grocers Food Program, In-Advance identified potential policy pathways to promote healthy retail, subsides, and cooperative purchase agreements to mention a few. In-Advance also launched education workshops to educate residents on the individual and collective roles in a local economy, specifically the multiplier effect of their purchase at a local business and the collective purchasing power residents have if they come together.
For more information on Healthy Food, Healthy Families, please contact Gabriela Rueda.
Youth Engagement in Ashland and Cherryland
Through a partnership with Dig Deep Farms, Alameda County Office of Education, REACH Ashland Youth Center, and ALL IN Alameda County, a summer youth engagement program was launched in 2020 and 2021 to support career pathway discovery in the food economy. For more information on our youth engagement programming please visit the Children, Youth, and Families webpage.
Children, Youth and Families
Ending Youth Homelessness
Effective July 1, 2022, Ending Youth Homelessness work was successfully transitioned to the Health Care Services Agency, Office Homeless Care and Coordination. Transitioning the work is a key hallmark of ALL IN’s success to launch innovative strategies and transitioned them into organizations that allow the work to be sustained.
Under ALL IN, staff worked with County, City, and Community partners to identify and implement strategies and approaches to preventing and ending youth homelessness in Alameda County. To do so, we aim to build the capacity of our systems to:
- Focus explicitly on addressing racial inequities as a driver of youth homelessness
- Center young people as leaders
- Increase alignment and coordination between multiple youth-serving systems
- Increase resources dedicated to youth
- Implement innovative, relevant, and youth-specific programs
Youth Action Board. ALL IN led a collaborative effort to develop and sustain a Youth Action Board (YAB) with the goal of cultivating youth voice and infusing that voice into policy and program planning in Alameda County to prevent and end youth homelessness. Through participation on the YAB, youth were empowered to take the lead in voicing their support, concerns, ideas, and more. YAB members are youth with lived experience of homelessness or housing insecurity. The YAB has been named a subcommittee of the County’s Continuum of Care Committee, and YAB members have provided recommendations on key funding allocations for youth homelessness. The YAB co-developed a proposal for preventing and ending youth homelessness in Alameda County which led to securing a $6.5 million grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Under OHCC, the YAB will continue to uplift the voices of and empower youth, a constituency that is often excluded from decision-making on policies, programs, and services that shape their lives.
For more information on the Ending Youth Homelessness work or the Youth Action Board, please contact Hannah Moore at HMoore@acgov.org.
Youth Development
Youth Collaborative Internship. With support from the Hellman Foundation, ALL IN is partnering with two community organizations, Project EAT (Alameda County Office of Education) and HHREC, to provide youth engagement and development programming in summer 2021. This programming will support transition age youth in the Unincorporated County to (1) participate in meaningful summer programming, and (2) develop and increase life skills, school performance, and job readiness in the areas of agriculture, financial literacy, health and wellness, job training, and advocacy.
The programs will provide stipends for youth participants, ensure youth have access to a continuum of culturally responsive and integrated health and wellness services, and connect youth to resources to support their health and socio-emotional needs.
Youth Urban Agriculture Internship. With support from Sutter Bay Hospital, ALL IN launched the Youth Urban Agriculture Internship (YUAI) is a six-week paid summer internship aimed at providing opportunities for youth living in central Alameda County to develop an understanding of the food system to increase healthy behaviors, generate interest and skills in the local food economy, and improve financial literacy.
The YUAI program was held in 2020 and 2021. YUAI engaged youth ages 16-24 years old from the Unincorporated County. The urban farming internship is not only possible in a pandemic but eagerly appreciated by young people. The program is a partnership between ALL IN, Dig Deep Farms, and the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE).