Signal Tribune Your Weekly Community Newspaper
VOL. XLIII NO. 49 COMMUNITY
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas: Long Beach and Signal Hill celebrate with tree lightings see page 2
Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill
Friday, December 3, 2021
LOCAL BUSINESS
COMMUNITY
Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune
Long Beach resident Jeff Bartholemy receives his Moderna COVID-19 booster shot at the Houghton Park mobile vaccine clinic on Nov. 22, 2021.
Image by Long Beach Community Table
Bread, fresh fruits and vegetables sit ready to be picked up at the Long Beach Community Table warehouse in Bellflower.
Long Beach Community Table brings nourishment to Long Beach’s food deserts Karla M. Enriquez iD gital d E itor
The driving force behind Long Beach Community Table’s mission—to help feed the Long Beach community—is compassion. “It’s a lot of like-minded people that just want to see the people in their communities—that haven’t necessarily started with the same set of opportunities as other people—[thrive],” Executive Director Kristen Cox said of the nonprofit. Since its inception in 2018, the mutual aid cooperative’s goal has been to nourish those in need and bring food to Long Beach’s food deserts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food deserts as areas that don’t have fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets and providers of healthy food. According to 2015 data from USDA’s Economic Research Service Atlas, Central and North Long Beach are considered food deserts and data from 2019 added parts of West Long Beach. And it was eight parks in those see COMMUNITY TABLE page 6
Health Department “closely monitoring” information on Omicron variant tS aff eR port Signal rT ibune
Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune
Johnny Chhom, the founder of Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice, sits with a replica of his truck in front of the neon sign at his new brick-and-mortar store in Bixby Knolls on Dec. 2, 2021.
Bixby Knolls welcomes Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice
I
rK isten a F rrah Naeem Staff Writer
t’s been three months since locals have tasted the freshly pressed sugarcane juice made by Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice. Founder Johnny Chhom is preparing to make the leap from a food truck to a Bixby Knolls storefront. “I’ll be honest, I’m feeling a little anxious,” Chhom said of the grand opening. Chhom has been on a hiatus from his usual schedule of pressing sugarcane juice six to seven days a week as he prepares for the Sweet Grass Sugarcane Juice storefront’s grand opening on Saturday, Dec 4. “For me to have three months off, like I kind of lost that edge a little bit,” Chhom said. “But I know, I’m confident that I can get it back. [...] I’m just going to get right back on that horse and take off like I anticipate.” The strong support customers showed for his product motivated him to convert his business from a food truck to a storefront. “When I first thought about it was when I started having really, really, really long lines and I kept selling out every day,” Chhom said. “And I’m like [...] ‘I’ve already outgrown this truck, I need the brick-and-mortar.’” see SWEETGRASS SUGARCANE page 6
The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services released a statement today that it is “closely monitoring information” regarding the COVID-19 Omicron variant. One case of the new variant has been confirmed in San Fransico. According to Reuters, five cases have been identified in Canada. In Long Beach, a percentage of positive tests are sequenced to detect variants, such as the Delta variant and newly-identified Omicron variant. The department said it will inform the community if the Omicron variant is detected in Long Beach. “New variants will continue to evolve as long as there are large proportions of unvaccinated people,” the department said in a statement. In Long Beach, 84% of adults have received at least one vaccine dose and 66.8% of those eligible for the vaccine are fully vaccinated. “Becoming fully vaccinated and getting the booster continues to be the most effective way to protect yourself and the community from the virus,” the department wrote. Anyone 5 years of age and older can receive a vaccine in Long Beach. More information about vaccines and booster shots, as well as vaccine sites in Long Beach, is available at www.longbeach.gov/ vaxlb.