Rob AriasSome good Emeryville News from around the web to start your week off. A local Berkeley transitional house was recently awarded an Emeryville IKEA Makeover worth $10,000. The Peet’s Headquarters on Park Avenue is involved in a program to provide internships to local low-income youths and community efforts to bring fresh groceries to the “food desert” of West Oakland are underway and gaining momentum.
Genesys Works matches high school students with tech internships
Unlike most of his classmates at Skyline High School in Oakland, Allan Qin, a shy 18-year-old, finishes class at noon and goes straight to work at the Emeryville headquarters of Peet’s Coffee & Tea. His day is just getting started.
A high school senior, Qin has been working at Peet’s in technological support for more than five months. Opportunities for low-income students to find work are hard to find, and meaningful work is even more rare.
Read More on SF Gate →
Local homeless shelter awarded IKEA makeover
The McKinley Family Transitional House in Berkeley was awarded a comprehensive makeover this month after winning a contest run by IKEA.
The McKinley facility — which is operated by East Bay nonprofit group Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency — provides up to two years of temporary housing for homeless families with children. The IKEA store in Emeryville will furnish the facility with approximately $10,000 of furniture and offer design expertise to renovate the aging building, according to BOSS individual and corporate giving manager Christine Lias.
Read More on Dailycal.org →
3 efforts aim to build West Oakland’s healthy future
by Piper Wheeler
It is well-known that fresh produce and alternatives to fast-food are both sorely lacking in West Oakland, an area sometimes referred to as a “food desert.” With perhaps one exception, efforts to date to rectify the situation have either not been forthcoming, or failed to get off the ground. However, three initiatives close to the hearts of food-justice activists are picking up steam and promise to bring real and lasting change for the neighborhood.
Read More on Berkeleyside →
