(Editor's note: The following is part of our continuing series that looks at Oakland Local's picks for people/organizations to watch in 2011. See all profiles in this series.)

Jason Harvey is a jack-of-all trades: chef, Farmer's Market manager, youth educator, garden builder, as well as the executive director of a vibrant East Oakland food justice organization, Oakland Food Connection. Harvey's many skills are all focused on one goal: “To educate youth and adults about the process of food from seed to table.”

Harvey has big plans for Oakland Food Connection - OFC - in 2011. 

“I'm really, really hopeful for OFC because the organization has made it through a very difficult period where many organizations were shutting down due to the economic climate," he says. "I continually found a way to keep the doors open.”

OFC is unveiling a new website in two months, recruiting new board members and has just completed an important strategic planning process. Harvey also plans to hire a new program coordinator soon.

As for new programs, in 2011 the organization is intensifying its focus on East Oakland's Macarthur corridor, which encompasses a string of schools including Thurgood Marshall, Oakland Unity High and the Castlemont Community of Schools among others.  

“As you go down Macarthur, there's a clear lack of investment and people have to drive farther away to go to a grocery store," Harvey says. "That's where we're focusing our efforts.” Existing projects between the many schools and youth programs in the area are beginning to work together and new projects are starting. “A youth food system is beginning to emerge on this stretch of Macarthur.” 

Harvey says he is excited to be involved with the maintenance of Castlemont's existing gardens because of his personal connection there.

“I was a youth who helped with the build out of those gardens a long time ago.  Sixteen, 17 years later ... it's so great to see it still going on today.”

What are his hopes for Oakland in 2011? 

“Our new mayor is really exciting for the most part because there's a lot of great synergy going on,” Harvey says. “I'm really hoping for job creation and that food justice organizations will be able to capture that. I hope Oakland can maintain a healthy lifestyle and get rid of some really bad habits going on in the city right now, in health and inequities and high unemployment.”

Read more profiles in our 11 for 11 series.

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About Jess Watson

Jess Watson is a North Oakland resident interested in the links between art, sustainability and cooperative living. She is a graduate student and a freelance grantwriter. In her free time, she makes mosaics, cans plums and forages. Check out Jess' blog at quirkyurbanite.blogspot.com.