“All of the herbs that we use when we’re cooking, we’ll go to the store and buy it, and when we get ready to use it again, it’s no good,” Harrel said.
Harrel and Pratt wanted the option to pick truly fresh produce from their garden for their weekly class. So far, they’ve planted basil, cilantro, parsley, hot peppers, onions, butter lettuce, collard greens, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers.
Creating Food Access
Not all elders can access a community garden plot or have the energy to tend one. For many, simply getting to a grocery store with a variety of nutritious, affordable foods can be a challenge. California is home to the largest population of adults over 65 in the United States, but many who live on low incomes can’t meet their basic needs, increasing their risk of chronic illness and disease. The U.C. Davis Alzheimer’s Research Center received a $5 million grant from the state to ask, “What are the ways that we cannot only get older adults to exercise and diet, but what are the important differences in the way that Black Americans adopt healthy lifestyles and white Americans adopt healthy lifestyles?” Johnson explained. “Sometimes I call that the study of haves and have-nots.”
“I want to remain mobile. So what do you do? You eat right and you exercise.”
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, older Black Americans are twice as likely as older non-Hispanic white Americans to have Alzheimer’s or other dementias. Latinx Americans are about 1.5 times as likely. And women make up almost two-thirds of Americans living with the disease. Researchers at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center have attributed the racial disparities to social and environmental factors, including chronic exposure to racism and unequal access to healthy food options. East Oakland is a prime example: Driving with Merrick from the East Oakland Sports Center to the a supermarket for a few red onions was a 2-mile one-way journey, which would have taken 45 minutes on foot or roughly 30 minutes by public transit, each way.
In addition to online classes, The Good Life provides free food, through pickups at the Sports Center to ensure participants get the ingredients they need for the recipes. Merrick says the number of food pickups has nearly doubled since the program started. The day before class, she and her team, including Spanish-language instructor Irma Hernandez, meet at the Sports Center to bag and package the week’s ingredients, usually sourced from a legendary local supermarket, the Berkeley Bowl. An hour later, women start trickling into the Sports Center lobby with reusable shopping bags and backpacks to pick up their ingredients, along with additional food—milk, eggs, vegetables, crackers, chips, and more—donated by the Alameda County Food Bank. During pickup hours, the lobby transforms from an echoey transactional space into a social scene. Many women linger to chat with each other and the staff, filling the air with warmth and laughter. They share cooking stories and catch up on each other’s lives.
Patricia Richard, an active 77-year-old who many credit with telling them about The Good Life, said she visits her neighborhood farmers’ market weekly, but still goes to the Sports Center for specific food items. “I want to remain mobile,” she said. “So what do you do? You eat right and you exercise.” A Good Life participant since it launched, Richard transitioned to a vegan diet a year and a half ago after learning she had partial artery blockage. “I decided that rather than taking drugs, I’ll just go with the diet.”
Patricia Richard (center) with fitness supervisor and trainer Michael Tatmon, Jr. (left), Shanette Merrick (top right), and Irma Hernandez (bottom right). (Image courtesy of The Good Life)
Despite the prevalence of dementia in the Black community, this group is underrepresented in research studies on preventing and treating the condition (though there are signs of improvement). Richard wanted to help researchers collect information “about Black people, about the discrepancies, and why we have so much dementia,” she said, so she joined U.C. Davis’ Alzheimer’s Disease Cohort, an ongoing study for which she undergoes a “grueling” 2.5-hour annual examination involving memory tests, blood work, and an MRI scan. Her involvement will continue for the rest of her life.