SEFA Food Guardians focus on FoodsCo
by Kenneth Hill for the Food Guardians
Building on Network for Elders ground-breaking grassroots effort, the SEFA Food Guardians have continued to work with Bayview’s only full service grocery store, Foods Co., located at 5800 Williams Street, to ensure that quality nutritious foods and a clean shopping environment is being provided to all shoppers.
The SEFA (Southeast Sector Food Access) Food Guardians found it essential to get the opinions of Foods Co customers, by developing and administering a community-based participatory survey, to see where those customers stand on the overall spectrum of freshness of food and cleanliness throughout the store. The survey was conducted over a series of two weeks in the month of May 2010 on peak shopping days, during mornings and afternoons, to get a variety of opinions. After the survey was concluded and the data was compiled, a meeting was set up to discuss the results of the survey with the new Foods Co Director, Roberto Aguilar.
On October 14th 2010, the SEFA Food Guardians, along with the Food Guardian Coordinator, met with Foods Co Store Director, Roberto Aguilar, to discuss the results of the survey, and also to present a list of recommended changes for the store. Mr. Aguilar committed to most the recommendations, and felt that the following recommendations for improvement could be met within 3-6 months:
* Cleaning
* Customer Service
* Addressing the loitering outside
* Healthier foods options
* Being more on top of checkout lines
* Attending SEFA meetingsMeeting with Food Guardians quarterly
To ensure that the recommendations are met, the SEFA Food Guardians have requested quarterly meetings with the store director, followed by an official letter being sent to Foods Co District Manager, Richard Tovatt.
We are counting on the community to look for the changes as well.
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