Obesity Epidemic in East Los Angeles

Time: Noon
Location: Tamayo Restaurant, 5300 East Olympic Blvd
Cost: $15 for lunch

Join us on Tuesday, October 4th at 12:00 noon for a great lunch discussion led by Ana Mascareñas at Tamayo Restaurant (5300 East Olympic Bl, Los Angeles, CA 90063).

Nearly 1 in 3 East Los Angeles children are considered obese. Of the 128 cities and unincorporated communities in Los Angeles county, only 7 other communities have a higher rate of childhood obesity than East LA. Ana will discuss health implications of transportation and community planning, food and environment, and focus on the emerging science and the policy debate around obesogens (chemicals linked to obesity).

Ana Mascareñas is committed to advancing the precautionary principle as the basis for public health and environmental decision making. She is the policy and communications coordinator with Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles (PSR-LA) where she directs policy education and training efforts to share environmental health science and policy information with PSR-LA’s 4,000 members and supporters. Ana serves on the steering committee of Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy (CHANGE), a state-wide coalition of environmental health, policy, labor, environmental justice, and interfaith organizations working to create a better system regulating toxic chemicals and promoting safer alternatives in California.

Ana studied human biology and sociology at Brown University and worked in the office of Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA-31) before joining the nonprofit sector in 2008. She was a 2009 Fellow of the Los Angeles chapter of New Leaders Council (NLC) and a 2010 Fellow of the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) Leadership Institute. Ana is a resident of City Terrace, a neighborhood in unincorporated Los Angeles County, is on the board of directors for the East Los Angeles Residents Association (ELARA) and recently joined the board of Bienvenidos, a community-based organization providing a safety net for children and families through health clinics, programs for youth development, substance abuse and intervention, foster care, and many other programs.

She comes from three generations of a California farmworker family.