Thanksgiving Day is a joyful time as friends and families gather to count their blessings and bask in the warmth of companionship and comfort food.

However, recent years have seen an upswing in families who must economize on the traditional feast, due to the economic downturn. Many working families – who are typically givers in the community – are either under- or unemployed. They must economize on every meal, just to get by.

According to the most recent report released by the USDA (“Household Food Security in the United States”), 85 percent of American households were “food secure throughout the entire year, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (14.6 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year.”

That’s one out of every seven families. Of those families in need, nearly six percent had tightened the belt – literally. One or more household members reduced their food intake and “eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food.”

Fortunately, it is possible to do something positive that benefits everyone – both the giver and the receiver – this holiday season.

“The Run to Feed the Hungry is 25 percent of our budget,” said Kelly Siefkin, communication and development director at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. “So this event is significant.”

The 17th annual Run to Feed the Hungry will be held, rain or shine, on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 25. The race starts just west of the entrance to the Sacramento State campus and runs through East Sacramento. Registration is available online at www.RuntoFeedtheHungry.com. Fees are $35 for adults and $20 for children ages 15 and under. Timed runners pay $5 more. Race day registration is 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Timed 10K runners start at 8:45 a.m. Timed 5K runners start at 9:05 a.m., and all untimed 5K fun run/walkers will follow behind the 5K start.

The Run to Feed the Hungry is Sacramento’s largest and most popular Thanksgiving Day event. Families and friends gather to run the 10K portion of the race, or to walk the 5K section. The atmosphere is happy, festive and hopeful.

Participants agree: a little exercise is good for the body before enjoying a Thanksgiving meal…which will taste even better when one knows that the morning’s activities went to help neighbors in need.

susan@valcomnews.com

SACRAMENTO – The Big Build, the largest capital improvement program in Sacramento County history, has surpassed two million labor hours invested in the program from June 2008 September 2010. To date, the hours have resulted in wages of over $75 million in paid wages.

“We would be unable to celebrate an on schedule and within budget status for the Big Build without the contributions of the talented team of contractors, subcontractors and the many men and women working on this project,” said Hardy Acree, director of airports. “We appreciate their contributions to a state-of-the-art facility that will serve this region for years to come.”

The Big Build is progressing quickly and safely. In March, prime contractor Austin-Walsh received the Cal/OSHA Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). The Big Build has the lowest rate of incidents (3.1) and Days Away, Restricted or Transferred from Work (2.3). Industry-wide, the rate is normally 5.4 for incidents and 3.3 for Days Away, Restricted or Transferred from Work.

“This historic project is an economic boon to Sacramento County today and in the future,” said Roger Dickinson, chair of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. “Jobs created by the Big Build and the airport’s future growth are welcome, especially during this period of economic challenges.”

Over the course of the Big Build, 2400 jobs will be created and the construction program will produce $2 billion in economic impact for Sacramento County. By 2020, the new terminal is anticipated to have an annual impact of $2.6 billion and 16,500 jobs. The new terminal complex at Sacramento International Airport will open to the public in late 2011.

Sacramento International Airport was the 43rd busiest North American Airport in 2009 with approximately 8.9 million passengers. The Sacramento County Airport System is responsible for planning, developing, operating, and maintaining four of Sacramento County’s airports: Sacramento International Airport, Executive Airport, Mather Airport and Franklin Field. For more information on the County Airport System, visit www.sacairports.org.

On the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 10, he addressed the workers at Cook Realty. Johnson told the realtors to have faith that the uptick in the housing market is coming. But in order to get that much needed improvement in the local economy, Johnson sees a number of things lacking in Sacramento’s current state.

“I want to create a strong downtown core,” he said. “I look down J, K and L streets and it’s embarrassing.”

The area leaves a lot to be desired both aesthetically and economically, according to Johnson. He said that in order to improve the downtown area, Sacramento needs to be able to lure big business. He proposed that the way to draw more people to Sacramento is to improve local schools.

Johnson spoke glowingly of the improvements in his childhood neighborhood of Oak Park, using it as an example of an area that has improved its school system. At the Rotary Club meeting on Thursday, he said that this November’s school board elections can play a vital role in changing the school situation.

“If we can get the right people (on the school board), we can change everything,” he said.

According to Johnson, Sacramento will never shed its “cow town” label until these things are fixed. He wants Sacramento to become a “destination city” rather than just the halfway point between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe.

“Other major cities are 5-10 years ahead of us right now,” he said. “Sure, we have a good quality of life and there are a lot of trees and all that, but we are capable of so much more.”

He pointed to Downtown Plaza being “40 percent vacant” and that there are holes in the ground with nothing going on around them downtown. He believes strongly that a new arena/events complex can and will bring people to the capital city.

ARCO Arena has fallen into disrepair and simply does not have the power to draw big musical acts to Sacramento, according to Johnson. He stated that being the capital of one of the most powerful economies in the world and having the oldest arena in the NBA does not speak well of the city. But he knows that simply building an arena for the sake of building an arena is not the way to go about it.

“If you’re going to do it, do it right,” Johnson said at the meetings.

He doesn’t want the complex to simply be better than ARCO Arena. He wants it to be state of the art.

“We can do big, we can do bold,” he said. “It’s hard to get people to see that.”

The newest plan in place would have the California State Fair move from its home at Cal Expo out to the current ARCO Arena lot in Natomas; Cal Expo would then be sold and developed over several years and the new arena would sit in the railyard land downtown.

The arena, which Johnson is confident can be had in the next three years, would play a vital role in strengthening the downtown area that he calls embarrassing as it stands now.

Putting the arena on city-owned land at the railyard would cut a substantial amount of cost from a land acquisition aspect, and Johnson assured everyone in attendance that the arena will be built with the taxpayers in mind.

Much of both events was spent answering questions from the audience. The “strong mayor” question was raised at each event, which Johnson was more than happy to explain to everyone. He said that the current system of government in Sacramento does not allow the mayor to have any authority. He even referred to himself as a figurehead at one point and as a “glorified councilmember” at another.

His main concern is that there is no accountability in the way the city is run now. He said that there is no one to blame for the state of the downtown area because everyone just blames each other without any real accountability.

There are a lot of things wrong with Sacramento as it stands now, but Johnson remains confident that a turnaround is indeed possible. Whether or not Sacramento ever becomes the tourist attraction that San Francisco and Lake Tahoe are, Johnson stands firm in his assertion that we can get much better as a city.

benn@valcomnews.com

Without reward or recognition, many of our best people and our most gifted businesses are working hard to get the local economy back on its feet. In these uncertain financial times, I believe it is important to celebrate those individuals and local businesses for their efforts; as such, let me introduce you to Land Park’s United Coffee House.

 

Coffee and culture in Land Park

Just south of Sacramento City College is a caffeinated oasis of divergent extremes – a unique union of the exotic and the familiar, the clean lines of modern architecture blending with the esoteric design of contemporary furniture. Such is Land Park’s newest café, the aptly named United Coffee House.

 

This independently owned café, located at 2114 Sutterville Rd. and specializing in fair-trade, French-pressed coffee, opened last year by young entrepreneurs Harjinder Singh and Tiffany Colby.

 

“I [imagine] this being a place where you see your neighbors,” said Colby. “A community hub.”

 

Since opening in August, Singh said the café has developed a string of regular customers and the neighboring community and nearby college have done much to make them feel welcome in Land Park.

 

“Everyone has been so kind,” Colby added. “It’s been perfect.” 

 

Unique blend

On any given morning, the café is teeming with energy, alive with a mix of Seattle Coffee house vibe and International swing. The air is filled with the welcoming scent of a bold brew and the walls are decorated with pieces from renowned artists. Small palms shade angular furniture placed throughout the coffee house while exotic music plays overhead. It’s as much inspiring as it is inspired. And that unity of spirit comes from the unique relationship of Colby and Singh, who together developed the concept and brought their café to life in Land Park.

 

“We are such polar opposites,” said Colby. “But I think we came to a good place.”

 

Growing up on opposite sides of the world, Colby in the western U.S. and Singh in India, the pair has contrasting views on decorating and music, but the two are unified in bringing their coffee house dream to a prosperous future. After meeting in India in 2008 and planning their business for more than year, Colby and Singh are excited to have finally brought their vision to life. Curiously, it is an endeavor that Singh, a regular tea drinker, only recently started to enjoy by the cup.

 

“I was not a coffee person and she got me a vanilla latté and after the first sip, I was like, ‘Wow, this is good,’” he said, adding that now he has his mom hooked on the brew.

 

But, according to Singh, it’s not just any cup of coffee that piques his interest, but the specialty roast his café offers daily. Supplied by Flying Goat Coffee roasters out of Healdsburg, Calif., Singh said that United Coffee House also French presses all their coffee – an unusual practice when so many other cafés use automated drip machines.

 

“That is as fresh as coffee as you can get,” Singh said, adding that if their prepared coffee is not sold in 40 minutes, it’s thrown out and a new batch is prepared. “I think when you are going to prepare a fresh cup of coffee, it makes people come back for more. That’s how we get regulars.”

 

Colby said the café is also trying to distinguish itself through its other offerings and by transitioning to a completely organic menu.

 

“Where I come from in Sonoma County, people care about where their food comes from,” she said. “I think there are a lot of people here who have those interests… and that is why we want people to know what we have is good and good for you.”

 

Colby said that the café is working with local vendors, such as Freeport Bakery and Grateful Bread Co. to help supply them with delicious menu items, like pastries and bread for freshly made sandwiches. In addition to that, Colby also sells homemade bread pudding from a recipe she picked up after years of working in the food services industry. 

 

United in style

Colby and Singh have high hopes for their burgeoning business, and hope to bring more and more local residents to their one-of-a-kind coffee house. With hopes of playing a role in the popular Second Saturday Art Walk and opening up their café for other venues (such as book clubs), the two eager entrepreneurs believe their new enterprise fits in among the eclectic offerings of the Land Park community.

 

“In the coffee industry in Sacramento, there are a lot of players, and the city is really big and I like building community in the town and among coffee sellers,” Colby said. “I really want people to come here… if they can use our spot as their spot that would be awesome.”

 

E-mail Ryan Rose at ryanrose@valcomnews.com .

The economic forecast for the Sacramento region is better than that of 2009 but it is still precarious, and job losses are expected to continue at least through most of 2010 according to the Sacramento Business Review.

The bi-annual Review, published by Sanjay Varshney, dean of Sacramento State’s College of Business Administration and Jason Bell of the CFA Society of Sacramento, is an independent review and forecast that focuses specifically on the economy of Sacramento.

“Although economists have already declared the official end of the national recession, we believe that the Sacramento region will lag behind the rest of the country in emerging from the recession,” Varshney says.

The Review, now in its second year, has hit the mark in its previous economic forecasts including a prediction in early 2009 that Sacramento’s unemployment rate would approach 13 percent by the end of that year.

“The unemployment rate for the Sacramento region has steadily climbed to 12.4 percent (as of November 2009) with a loss of nearly 83,000 wage and salary jobs since June 2007 and a loss of 43,800 jobs over the last 12 months,” Varshney says. 

The dean says Sacramento has likely already seen the worst of the job losses and believes the regional economy is starting to show early signs of recovering.  The bad news, he says, is that the recovery, particularly as it relates to the employment picture, will likely be very gradual over the next two years.

 ”We forecast that the unemployment rate in the Sacramento region will reach 13.5 percent in early 2010 with an improvement in the employment picture unlikely until later in the year,” he says. ”Even then, we expect the unemployment rate in the region to remain elevated through 2012.”

The Review also reports on emerging trends and forecasts in the areas of capital markets including the stock market, corporate performance, and real estate that includes housing.

 ”While virtually all of Sacramento’s banks have thus far survived the residential mortgage crisis, some may not be so fortunate in 2010 now that problems have migrated toward commercial real estate loans,” he says. “We continue to see formidable headwinds to the local economic and employment recovery, including moderate growth expectations, tight credit, excess capacity and consumers still looking to deleverage and rebuild wealth.” 

The new issue of the Review is available online at http://www.sacbusinessreview.com. A printed version will be available at the College of Business Administration.

For more information on the College of Business Administration, visit www.cba.csus.edu or call  (916) 278-6578 . Information on the CFA Society is available at www.cfass.org.