{
	"type": "rich",
	"version": "1.0",
	"provider_name": "Action Network",
	"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
	
	"html": "<link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/berkeley-students-need-affordable-groceries-not-upscale-dining?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-berkeley-students-need-affordable-groceries-not-upscale-dining' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div>",
	"author_name": "Jeff Noven",
	"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/users/j-noven-2/profile",
	"title": "Berkeley Students Need Affordable Groceries — Not Upscale Dining!",
	"thumbnail_url": "https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/374/168/normal/header_1600.jpg",
	"description": "Students deserve an affordable and healthy campus grocery store — not an upscale dinner restaurant. The Student Union Board must vote to fill the Bear&#x27;s Lair with a student grocery store! The Student Union Board can vote to provide a desperately needed campus resource in the vacant Bear&#x27;s Lair space in Lower Sproul: a full-service, student-governed, student-run grocery store. We believe the Berkeley Student Food Collective, the 12-year-old student-run nonprofit grocery store, currently located on Bancroft Way, would greatly serve students in the larger space. However, the former Bear’s Lair Bar in Lower Sproul has hosted three consecutive failed bar-restaurants — and the Board is now at risk of voting to make it an upscale dinner concept, despite unanimous approval from the ASUC Senate. We represent some of the thousands of students who use EBT/CalFresh, lack easy transportation to another grocery store, or just want more convenient cheap grocery options in a food desert. The Food Collective serves some of the most food-insecure members of our campus. Open to everyone to shop, we offer Double Up Food Bucks — which effectively reduces the cost of produce by 50% for EBT/CalFresh users — and have been listed as Outstanding Community Partners by the Basic Needs Center for four consecutive years for our partnership. Over 200 weekly student volunteers (and growing!) are involved in operating and democratically governing the Collective each year. And we work with upwards of 50 independent local vendors and farmers from across the Bay to prioritize the best producers left out of traditional markets. But the Student Union Board, which is made up of elected students and faculty/staff, against the whims of the ASUC Senate, rejected our initial proposal in a last-minute &quot;Executive Session&quot; vote, meaning we and the public has no idea why it was rejected (despite soliciting meetings with every member of the Board). Instead, they’re slated to review an upscale dining concept — not what our campus needs as the Bay Area cost of living continues to skyrocket. We, the students who wish to see the student grocery that our campus deserves, urge the Board to approve the most thorough, comprehensive, vetted, financially-sound, and morally urgent vision for the space: a full-service, student-run grocery. You can review our formal motion here, our slide deck here, and our formal proposal here. Members of the Student Union Board are here: Henry F. Isselbacher - Undergraduate Representative &amp; Board Chair Chaka Tellem - ASUC President Giancarlo Fernandez Cruz - ASUC Executive Vice President Lucy Andrews - Graduate Assembly President Tyler Lemon - Graduate Assembly Internal Vice President 7 New Soon-to-be appointed Students, Faculty &amp; Staff",
	"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/berkeley-students-need-affordable-groceries-not-upscale-dining"
}