What
Say You? Planned Parenthood Food
Fare
Santa
Monica Civic Auditorium. March 7,
2013.
SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror
March 15, 2013
Julia Child was an ardent Planned Parenthood supporter
and the inspiration for the now much anticipated annual Planned Parenthood Los
Angeles (PPLA) Food Fare Fundraising Gala. 34 years ago Child supervised 20 amateur sous chefs in the
kitchen of Ma Maison in Beverly Hills as they prepared a five-course dinner for
130 people. That dinner was the
first of the Planned Parenthood “Food Fares.”
The 2013 PPLA Food Fare at the Civic was
attended by more than 1500 people.
It was the 17th year PPLA hosted the Food Fare at the Civic. An orange carpet marked the entry into
the beautifully decorated and lit Civic, a great venue for this event. Fare goers feasted on food prepared by
Chef of the Year Joe Miller.
PPLA chose Miller for the Chef of the Year Award based on his culinary
arts, his history of work with PPLA and his commitment to the goals and values
of Planned Parenthood. The list of
participating restaurateurs reads like a “Who’s Who” of LA’s favorite chefs.
 | |
| Alice Miler, Clementine Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Food Fare March 7, 2013 |
Fare goers also bought chic goods from vendors
selling everything from jewelry to pajamas. http://pplafoodfare.com/?page_id=8
The credit for planning and organizing this
event goes to the PPLA Guild President Marcy Bergren Pine and the approximately
200 Guild Members. They volunteer their time and their expertise to support
PPLA’s fundraising and public outreach. The Food Fare is PPLA’s major
fundraising event and this year, from attendees, donors, sponsors and
contributors to the Fare, they raised over $800,000.00.
Supporting reproductive rights wasn’t always
this fun or this easy. Giving out
information about birth control was once a crime in the U.S. The reproductive rights pioneer Margaret Sanger was jailed for
opening the first U.S. birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York in 1916.
“Planned Parenthood dates its beginnings to 1916
when Sanger, her sister, and a friend open America's first birth control clinic
in Brooklyn, New York. In Sanger's America, women cannot vote, sign contracts,
have bank accounts, or divorce abusive husbands. They cannot control the number
of children they have or obtain information about birth control, because in the
1870s a series of draconian measures, called the Comstock laws, made
contraception illegal and declared information about family planning and contraception
"obscene."” http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/history-and-successes.htm
Sanger overcame legal and public obstacles and her
clinic became the American Birth Control League. Over time the League became the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America and Margaret Sanger was Planned Parenthood’s first
President.
Planned Parenthood “believes in the fundamental
right of each individual, throughout the world, to manage his or her fertility
regardless of the individual’s income, martial status, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, age, national origin, or residence. We believe that respect and value for diversity in all
aspects of our organization are essential to our well-being. We believe reproductive
self-determination must be voluntary and preserve the individual’s right to
privacy. We further believe that
such self-determination will contribution to an enhancement of the quality of life
and strong family relationships.” http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/vision-4837.htm
Serena Josel, the Director of Public Affairs for
PPLA said, “In LA it can become easy for us to become complacent but when you
look at what’s happening across the country you can’t be complacent. From 2010 to 2012 there were over 2000
pieces of anti- women’s health legislation in the form of anti abortion and
anti birth control bills across the country.
“We served over 136,000 patients last year in
our 19 clinics and 80% of our patients live at or below the poverty level. Our goal is to never turn anyone away,”
said Josel. “Fewer than 7% of
patients are teens and the majority of teen patients come with their
parents. We provide reproductive
health services, family planning, contraception, abortion, screening for
breast, cervical and testicular cancer, HIV screening and counseling, STD
testing and treatment. We work to
help people have healthy families.
“California often leads the nation on
reproductive rights health care and that’s a signal to us to keep on. We follow common sense, evidence based
policies and when we don’t get bogged down by outside politics we can concentrate
on our essential work.”
PPLA expenses totaled approximately $48 million
in 2012. Over $5 million came from
donations. The main source of
funding is from reimbursements for individual health services from private
health insurance companies or from public health coverage such as California Family
Pact or from health care programs supported by Federal funding.
Federal funding to Planned Parenthood started in
1970 when President Nixon signed “The Family Planning Services and Population
Research Act.”
The Act provides funding for family planning services and was supported by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans.
The Act provides funding for family planning services and was supported by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans.
Signing the Act, Nixon said, “No American woman
should be denied access to family planning assistance because of her economic
condition.”
What Say You?
