MONDAY, APRIL 29, 2013
Volume 12 Issue 145
Santa Monica Daily Press
NEW WAVE OF FOOD SEE PAGE 6
We have you covered
THE FRESH AND CLEAN ISSUE
New ways to get involved with school construction BY ASHLEY ARCHIBALD Daily Press Staff Writer
CITYWIDE Santa Monica is no stranger to construction — new apartments and office buildings shrouded in tarp and scaffolding sprout like mushrooms in the sea mist. Lately, however, Santa Monicans have been seeing a different kind of plan in the pipeline — school campuses all across the city have laid the groundwork to change the SEE SCHOOLS PAGE 9
Photos by Paul Alvarez Jr. editor@smdp.com
NOT JUST A TOKEN: If you have EBT you can swipe your card and get these chips to shop around at local Farmers’ Markets.
Food stamps to healthy meals
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Farmers’ Markets give low-income residents choices BY HENRY CRUMBLISH Special to the Daily Press
THIRD STREET When most Santa Monicans think of what you can get with food stamps we think of government cheese, not organic cheese. However, now that all four of the weekly Farmers’ Markets in the city accept food stamps, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) meal plans, making smart food choices doesn’t require a six-figure income. “I think it’s difficult to eat healthy in general, there’s a higher patronage of places that don’t have health food,” said
Jodi Low, Farmers’ Market coordinator. Low says food assistance programs have been growing in popularity as of late, despite the fact that most residents are financially secure and have no need for food stamps, “New patrons who didn’t realize we use it, are really grateful for it,” said Low. “Some vendors will even double their coupons.” This comes as news to some market patrons. “It’s surprising to me how inexpensive it is to eat healthy,” said Kirk White, who was strolling around the Saturday Downtown market with family and WELCOME TO GOOD EATS: Santa SEE MARKET PAGE 11
Report: Problems continue at L.A. foster agency
Monica Farmers’ Market vendors now accept the EBT food stamp program.
LOS ANGELES A newspaper investigation has found continuing neglect and abuse of children and dubious financial practices at a private foster care agency, a decade after it was singled out for similar problems by Los Angeles County auditors. Between October 2008 and September 2011 there were 240 allegations of abuse or neglect filed on behalf of youths placed with families by Teens Happy Homes, according to documents cited by the Los Angeles Times. The agency’s rate of nearly two allegations for each home during that period was more than two times the average for the state and two-thirds higher than that of the rest of L.A. County, the newspaper said. About half of Teens’ 131 facilities had no complaints during the period covered by the data. But four of them had 10 or more complaints, landing them among the top 40 in SEE FOSTER PAGE 10
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