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: Written by: Marc Albert; Published: 23 August 2021

With a statewide law letting people sell certain homemade foods considered a success, there's a push to allow budding home chefs to open their homes to diners.

Already in place in a handful of California counties, some on a trial basis, the rules essentially allow micro-restaurants or supper clubs to operate out of people's homes.

Supporters say fears that bustling nightspots will disrupt residential neighborhoods are mostly unfounded. Peter Ruddock, policy director of The Cook Alliance, a promoter of the law, said the law caps the number of meals that may be served.

"Thirty per day or sixty per week. You could do 30 meals two days a week and I do know a cook who sets up a barbecue restaurant in his backyard on weekends, he doesn't always get 30, but he could. Others, they don't even try to hit the 60, they get eight to 10 people, four days a week."

Operators also can't exceed $50,000 in gross revenue, can't hire more than one non-family employee, and music and signs are strictly regulated.

Ruddock estimated about 100,000 people across the state are making and selling food without permits. He said the initiative is a way to legalize such operations, and add some supervision over hygiene.

But launching the program locally requires the county board of supervisors to opt in. Christine Sosko, with Sonoma County environmental health and safety told a less-than-enthusiastic city council in Sonoma last week that their counterparts in Windsor, Cotati, Rohnert Park and Sebastopol have raised concerns on a number of fronts.

"Fire code compliance, that residential buildings are not equipped, unlike commercial buildings, A.D.A. compliance, safe escape routes, fire suppression, grease traps food storage and also the land use impacts, nuisance such as hours of operation, parking, odors noise and increased traffic."

Whether or not the county opts-in will be decided by the board of supervisors next month. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14.

: Written by: Tessa Paoli; Published: 20 August 2021

“Having the youth at the center of this work is really key,” said Latino Service Provider’s director of programs Stephanie Manieri. “To make sure that our community feels that the information that is being presented is coming from trusted people and not from a system that might be wanting to harm them, which is what a lot of folks feel about our healthcare system.”

Latino Service Providers is a Santa-Rosa based organization that’s been around since the late 80’s with a mission to serve Latinx communities throughout the county. And it runs the only training program for young community health workers, or youth promotores in Spanish, to destigmatize mental health and fill essential gaps in healthcare.

“We bring our youth to almost everything that we do,” Manieri said. “Whenever there’s a crisis that arises or wherever there’s something drastic that happens in Sonoma County, we shift gears to respond to that.”

And the pandemic was no different. The group of just under 50 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 stepped up during their year-long internship, first by offering remote case management to community members who needed financial support. And in January, Manieri said her team advocated for the young community health workers to get vaccinated in the first tier, along with other medical workers.

“That allowed us to go back into the community and participate in popup vaccine clinics, to participate in drive through distribution of essential items like diapers and food,” Manieri said. “We really want our youth to feel empowered in the process and to feel that they are the experts of the needs in their communities.”

Manieri said the youth promotores receive year-long training and learn how to provide culturally responsible and linguistically appropriate health education. They give presentations about emergency preparedness, government, climate, housing and mental health. And communities want to listen to these young people.

: Written by: Tessa Paoli; Published: 20 August 2021

Samantha Kim teaches sixth grade at Santa Rosa's Steele Lane Elementary School. On the first day of school, Kim assigned self-portraits.

“As I was watching the kids color I was like, oh my gosh some of these kids are only using orange, yellow or brown,” Kim said. “And one of the kids was like, ‘I don't know what color to use for my skin.”

Within days Kim was raising money for markers, colored pencils and construction paper in dozens of colors. Four days later $230 appeared in her account with the nonprofit Donors Choose. She's used the group in the past to buy books and digital alarm clocks during the pandemic, helping students join zoom meetings on time.

And it's more than the supplies, Kim has started the school year supplementing the curriculum with social justice issues. Before diving into ancient civilizations, she's teaching about race and cultural differences. And Kim also shares her own lived-experience with her 26 students, who she says all come from different ethnic, racial and cultural backgrounds.

“We talked about where our ancestors came from,” Kim said. “I talked about my background as a Korean American and also an Asian American and how there was a lot of stress and fear, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, different acts of violence against Asian Americans.”

And she hopes having representative art supplies will open up more conversations like this in her classroom.

“I definitely challenge them to think about different racial groups with an open mind and that everybody at the end of the day we are all human and we are on this earth together,” Kim said. “My hope is that they feel empowered as kids and they go on to be advocates for change when they are teenagers and then adults.”

: Written by: Tessa Paoli; Published: 19 August 2021

The demand for testing in Sonoma County has increased 60 percent in the past month as cases of the highly transmissible delta variant soar.

And local physicians like Dr. Jenny Fish have witnessed how hard it's been for patients to get tests promptly during this summer surge.

"I've had patients go to five test sights because they are so over capacity and the burden for how many people need tests and they are waiting three hours at a time," Fish said. "And just because the burden is so high they are turning people away."

Many of the patients she treats at a Santa Rosa community health center have lower socio-economic resources and less flexible working hours.

"The ability to get fast and accurate testing is essential to reducing disparities in COVID and reducing community spread," Fish said.

Because of this heightened demand, the County increased testing capacity 14-fold, to 14,000 a week, partnering with private companies for additional testing clinics. The partnered clinics will primarily provide PCR tests rather than rapid tests, because they are the most accurate for a-symptomatic people and those not receiving regular tests.

Vaccine Chief Dr. Urmila Shede said the demand for testing has also increased as employers institute vaccine and testing mandates. Shende said the State's testing taskforce offers additional assistance for employers.

"We will continue to pivot as we always do," Shende said. "We realize that the demands are really high out there and we are doing our best to try and accommodate that."

Fish said she feels a bit more optimistic since the increase in testing but worries about the delayed response.

"My main concern at this point is just that it's taking a long time, so we are missing a lot of opportunities in the middle of a surge," Fish said.

Fish said there will be accessible information about isolation, quarantine and financial aid resources at the sites.