Meals on Wheels Partnership a Breath of Fresh Air

Oct 28, 2024

By Sustainable Solano

SuSol’s Alex Lunine and Meals on Wheels Solano County’s Tyler Dorman get air purifiers and materials ready for distribution

With everything from wildfires to vehicle emissions, Solano County residents face a number of sources of air pollution that not only make the outside air sometimes dangerous for those who are particularly vulnerable, but also can affect indoor air quality.

That’s why an indoor clean air zone is important at home, a fact that is true for those with asthma or cardiovascular disease, but really something that can be beneficial to us all.

To help more Solano County residents understand the hazards of air pollution and the importance of clean air zones at home (or in public spaces that have been identified as somewhere to go during days when wildfire smoke threatens public health), Sustainable Solano was fortunate to receive grant funding through the Solano Community Foundation. This funding is intended to provide information and resources to some of the county’s most vulnerable residents, support coordination and collaboration around addressing air quality and support Sustainable Solano’s ongoing air quality programs, such as our Youth Air Protectors.

As part of the Climate Disaster Impact on Solano Air Quality program, we were fortunate to partner with Meals on Wheels Solano County to help with distributing 40 home air purifiers and educational materials on air quality and environmental hazards to community members who most needed them.

It was a big undertaking — starting with the lengthy process of bulk ordering 40 air purifiers! But it was well worth it when they were finally delivered to Meals on Wheels and prepared for distribution along with the air quality information kits and N95 masks.

Meals on Wheels Solano County serves 850 seniors daily, providing vital services of delivered meals as well as check-ins with volunteers and staff. We are grateful that they could provide both their expertise and distribution capabilities to help get air purifiers in people’s hands. We were able to work with Meals on Wheels to identify some of its most vulnerable recipients — whether historically underserved, low-income and/or with health concerns exacerbated by poor air quality — who could best use the purifiers.

We look forward to checking in with them later to learn how the seniors used their air purifiers and how similar distributions could be improved in the future!

We continue to work on other parts of the program, which also provides supplemental funding for SuSol’s ongoing air quality work in the cities of Fairfield and Rio Vista. We held one DIY air purifier workshop in Rio Vista back in August, and we’re planning the next one for Nov. 12 (You can register here.). Any county resident is invited to attend, where you will learn about the importance of air quality for our health and communities and learn how to create a homemade air purifier with filters and a box fan. Participants will be eligible to receive their own materials to take home and try out their new DIY skills.

Keep an eye out for other workshops and distributions in the coming months!

Celebration Gratitude from Sustainable Solano

Sep 30, 2024

By Sustainable Solano

Attendees could view a timeline of SuSol’s 25-year history (Photo credit (all): Luke George)

We would like to extend a warm thank you to everyone who attended our 25th Anniversary celebration! Your presence truly made the evening special, and it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces and meet new friends who share our passion for the mission of our organization.

A special thank you to Assemblymember Lori Wilson, and the representatives for Congressmen Mike Thompson and John Garamendi for attending our event. We are grateful for the state Legislature recognition, Congressional commendation, and recognition from Wanda Williams with the Board of Supervisors. Your support means the world to us and helps us continue our work!

Assemblymember Lori Wilson recognizes SuSol / Attendees enjoy a farm-to-table dinner from Chef Lindsey Chelini

It was fantastic to witness everyone coming together, sharing their insights, and contributing to our vision board. Your ideas and perspectives are invaluable as we shape the future of our programs. Look for a blog in November where we will share some of the insights we received from attendees, how they intersect with our current work and where they guide us to look in our future work.

We’d love for you to stay involved! Whether it’s attending future events or making a donation to keep this work going, your support is crucial in helping us continue our mission. Every little bit counts and makes a difference.

SuSol staff and a Youth Leadership Council alum discuss programs with attendees

Thank you once again for being part of our journey. We’re excited to move forward together, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Community Action Plan to Create a More Breathable Future in Fairfield

Dec 4, 2023

By Alex Lunine, Resilient Communities Program Manager

Fairfield residents will come together to create a path towards cleaner, healthier air in their community at a public community action plan workshop 12-3 pm Sunday, Jan. 28, at the Fairfield Adult Recreation Center.
Register here.

This indicator map through CalEnviroScreen shows the high asthma rates in Solano County 

Solano County, on the whole, has the ninth highest asthma rate in California, with the majority of Fairfield neighborhoods east of the I-80 having a more severe asthma burden than 90% of other census tracts. To address our air pollution and empower the community to tackle the air quality issues afflicting their city, Sustainable Solano will be facilitating the creation of an Air Quality Community Action Plan with Fairfield residents in a public workshop Jan. 28.

During the creation of this community-driven action plan, residents, governmental agencies and air quality experts will highlight the vulnerabilities they see in Fairfield’s short- and long-term air health, and identify priority actions they wish to see taken by the city to ensure that current and future generations in Fairfield have equitable access to clean air.

The Youth Air Protectors led a sustainability walk through Fairfield that highlighted air quality concerns in the city

This event will build off of earlier roundtables hosted in Fairfield, where a few of the key concerns raised by community members included air pollution in relation to traffic, improving Fairfield’s walkability and bikeability, air quality concerns regarding agriculture, setting up a community air monitoring station in Fairfield, and Travis Air Force Base’s impact on air quality.

By participating in the creation of a community action plan, residents can have a voice in how important issues are addressed within their communities. We’ve seen the value of such community engagement in Suisun City, where a community-driven action plan around flood risk and resilience continues to inform city decisions and future planning. We hope to see a similar impact in Fairfield around air quality.

 

Re-envisioning Fairfield’s Streets: Youth Air Protectors Present Final Projects Aug. 27

Aug 8, 2023

By Alex Lunine, Resilient Communities Program Manager

Over the course of the past five months, SuSol’s high school Youth Air Protectors have dedicated themselves to learning about the air quality in Fairfield and using their voices to bring the community together to tackle environmental injustices in the city. From spreading awareness at tabling events throughout Fairfield, to helping to facilitate air quality-focused meetings, to leading residents on a sustainability walking tour of downtown, the Youth Air Protectors have been indispensable in the push for a healthier, more breathable Fairfield.

August marks the last month of this internship cohort, and our students will be presenting their final projects to the community on Aug. 27. Each air protector chose a street in Fairfield with poor walkability and high volumes of traffic, and reimagined them to be more pedestrian friendly, green and promote cleaner air. We believe that if their concepts and ideas were actually implemented, such changes could help to reduce the high asthma rate of Fairfield, mitigate the impacts of the urban heat island effect, and bring our community together on our sidewalks and streets.

Here the YAP interns share about their final projects. See the projects and talk with the students on Aug. 27!  (Ed. Note: Intern statements are lightly edited for clarity.)

“I redesigned the intersection of North Texas and Utah Street to make traveling through the area more sustainable. My design includes protected bike lanes and sidewalks, reduced lane sizes to protect pedestrians further, better views, bus stops, and more! I’m a firm believer that walkability is one of the most essential (and undervalued) parts of a sustainable city, and this project reflects that.”
– Sachi Bansal

“I decided to choose the street redesign project because after taking a sustainability walk around downtown Fairfield, it became clear that there are a lot of improvements to be made for Fairfield’s roads. The main issues I noticed during the walk were a lack of shade on the sidewalks, the lack of safety for bikers on the bike lanes, and lack of greenery. I wanted to make a drawing of a street where I implemented changes to combat these issues.”
– Prabhjot Kaur

“For my project I decided to redesign the street Travis Boulevard. I thought that it had too many street lanes and though it made sense since it leads to a highway, I reimagined it to be in a people-oriented city and worked upon that. Along with changing the street I also changed the buildings and parking lots in a way where it would look more pleasing, and easier to access. I also added wider sidewalks, a bus stop and a bicycle rack so it would encourage public transportation. I hope that Fairfield in the future would incorporate these ideas to create a more sustainable environment while also adding more elements that persuade people to try to live sustainably; like recycling, farming, shopping locally and more!”
– Esther Lopez

“I choose to redesign the Pennsylvania Avenue and West Texas Street intersection because it has a lot of potential in terms of walkability. In this model, I hope to show that Fairfield can become more people-friendly even with our current infrastructure.”
– Hannah Lopez

“Enhancing Fairfield’s existing infrastructure to be more sustainable is imperative in bettering the lives of residents while promoting an eco-friendly lifestyle. For my project, I chose to redesign the Gateway Plaza, a strip mall located adjacent to the Solano Town Center. Featuring a sizable parking lot with hundreds of parking spaces and minimal walkability, the Gateway Plaza is a motorist’s paradise. Through visualizing how the area could be altered with bikers and pedestrians in mind, I intend to show how changes towards sustainability are realizable in even the most seemingly despairing of locations.”
– Harjot Singh

Register for the event here. If you or someone you know would like to sign up for the next cohort of high school Fairfield Youth Air Protectors, starting Sept. 7, apply here. 

We’re excited to share our greener, more just vision of Fairfield with you and hope to see you there. 

Let’s Make Fairfield a Walkable Forest

Apr 28, 2023

By Alex Lunine, Resilient Communities Program Manager

Growing up on a fairly quiet street, my summers were filled with wiffleball and basketball in the middle of the road. It’s no surprise that as we have become more and more dependent on our cars and shifted further towards virtual work, we have lost some of our connection between our community and nature. Concrete maintains a stranglehold on our streets and yards, while increasingly blistering summers and poor air quality limit our freedom to access our city’s amenities and outdoors. What we need is a drastic change to what we, as a community, prioritize in our public spaces, and that starts with you.

Map of Fairfield Communities

Click here to view an interactive version of this map
Sustainable Solano is looking to help grow an urban forest here in central Fairfield (see map above), where we have identified a lack of walkable infrastructure and a desperate need for tree canopy cover. By shading our yards, sidewalks, and streets with tree cover, we can mitigate the impacts of urban heat islands (making our 100+ degree summer days much more livable and reducing your energy costs), purify our polluted air, and make it more pleasant for our community to walk, bike and play outdoors more often.

SuSol has several programs that focus on creating green spaces within our cities, including waterwise, sustainable yards and community gardens that support neighborhoods through creating access to fresh garden produce. Through our programs, we seek to create resilient neighborhoods where neighbors can come together to create spaces that are abundant in habitat and tree cover and where neighbors can share resources. We’re inviting Fairfield residents, particularly those in the areas labeled in the map, to come together with their community around this type of project.

We can help support these efforts through our programs! If you want to transform and beautify your block with trees and greenery, please fill out this interest form so we can see if the site is a good fit for our programs. SuSol brings together community members in free educational workshops that are used to install these gardens, which are planned and led by a professional designer. There is a commitment from the property owner, but the programs help to fund these projects. If you’re interested for your yard or community, let us know, and please share this with your neighbors so we can grow beautiful, breathable, and walkable communities.

Youth Air Protectors: An Important (and Exciting) Opportunity

Feb 23, 2023

By Prabhjot Kaur, Youth Air Protectors intern

SuSol launched our Air Quality program in 2022 in Fairfield. The program is centered around Youth Air Protectors — high school students and young adults who learn about air quality challenges that affect Fairfield and seek ways to educate the community about those challenges and possible solutions while working on hands-on projects. As part of the initial cohort of Youth Air Protectors, we thank Prabhjot for sharing about her experience so far!

Youth Air Protectors interns (Prabhjot is second from left) work on collage projects to envision a world that is environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just

The Youth Air Protectors program by Sustainable Solano is definitely something I will often look back on in the future. I found out about the Youth Air Protectors program from my friend, who persuaded me to apply for it. I signed up with the expectation that the program would require interns to research about the environment and air pollution levels, remaining strictly academic. However, I was incredibly surprised when we were asked to make a collage about nature and what we perceived to be a sustainable, or ideal world during the internship certification meetings. I was even more shocked when I realized that I was unable to visualize a world like that even though I considered myself to be fairly optimistic. Also, later on in the internship, we were given the task of designing flyers that would raise awareness about air pollution in our community. Overall, the program offers more creative freedom and independence than I initially expected, which was a pleasant surprise.

My other expectation when signing up was that the program would focus strictly on air pollution. However, in the internship certification meetings, we were given the assignment to watch videos from an online course called “Awakening the Dreamer,” which informed us about the current major world crises. It was interesting to see how the problem of air pollution related to social and economic issues. Also, the videos showed me how the efforts of environmentalists are making a significant difference, and with more consistent efforts, we can eventually reverse climate change, which was something that I originally thought was impossible.

SuSol interns explore a demonstration food forest during a tree guild workshop

However, what I was truly excited about when applying for this program was going outside and interacting with nature. As someone who spends a lot of time indoors, I figured that this would be a great opportunity to possibly plant flora and meet new people. Due to this, I decided to attend a Tree Guild Workshop, which was run by Sustainable Solano. Although I did not get to install plants, it was calming to walk around and learn about sustainable gardens. On top of that, everyone at the event was really kind, and they were happy to answer any questions I had about gardening and the environment in general. It was definitely one of my best, carefree and most memorable days of 2022.

From the fact that the air pollution level in Fairfield is causing rates of asthma that are considerably higher than the rest of California to the fact that dandelions are not always “weeds,” I have already learned a great deal from the internship. And there is still a lot more to come that I am excited for! In the future, we are going to be participating in beautification projects, sustainability walks, and other garden installation events. Overall, I am glad that I was given this opportunity and made the decision to apply for the Youth Air Protectors program, because it is definitely shaping up to be one of the most important parts of my high school experience.

We are seeking applicants for the next cohort of Youth Air Protectors that starts in April. Interested? You can learn more and apply here.

Interested in learning more about the Air Quality program and how you can be part of working toward better air quality for Fairfield? Learn more here!