[Student Reporters] "Eat and Greet" to bring together

Paul Kim / 11th Cerritos High School

Interview with Esther Park (a volunteer at the KAC)

Q: How did you come to organizing this "Eat and Greet"?

A: Because last year we did a commemorative event to raise awareness among the youth about the riots this year we thought it would be an opportune time to use a common cause to bring different parts of the LA community together and in this case it was spreading awareness about alternative produce sources and food security in low income communities. Especially because Korea town has such a diverse population and it's important to bring everyone together around issues like this that affect everyone.

Q: What is the significance in a 'La Riots Commemoration'?

A: It's an opportunity to reflect on how far we've come from the violence and from the anger and the past of LA especially Koreatown. So this is really a good opportunity and it's also almost crucial to reflect at a moment like this on what we can do now and what's need in this community at present.

Q: What do you hope to get this out of this event?

A: In a sense I think that every outreach event or opportunity in LA especially because we're so organized into ethnic enclaves is always a chance to bring the community together and I would hope that through more events like this that reach out to all different types of the community not just certain ones we might be able to continue to facilitate collaborative action because if all the people came together around common causes like this and spoke out to the policy makers and showed them that we're altogether around things like this then we can empower the community in a way that is unifying rather than diversifying.