Khari Mosley
(click pic for candidate’s website)
Khadijah Harris
(click pic for candidate’s website)
There is a contested primary election race for Pittsburgh City Council District 9 between Democratic candidates Khadijah Harris, an independent broker, and Khari Mosley, the political director of 1Hood Media.
This seat is currently held by Ricky Burgess, who is not running for reelection. There are no Republican candidates for this seat.
Pittsburgh District 9 comprises the neighborhoods of East Hills, East Liberty, Friendship, Garfield, Homewood, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar, and Point Breeze North.
The candidates’ answers to our voter guide questions for the May 16, 2023 Primary Election are below. You can also learn more about these two candidates in the WESA 2023 Primary Election Voter Guide.
2023 Voter Guide Questions:
Roughly 1 in 5 Pittsburgh residents are food insecure, and large sections of the city, especially many predominantly Black neighborhoods, do not have access to healthy affordable food.
1) What would your priorities be as City Councilmember for the deployment of the Pittsburgh Food Justice Fund that the council passed in December?
Harris:
My priorities as a City Council member for the deployment of the city’s food justice fund would be to make sure this very important subject stays on the table at every City Council meeting until committees are formed and we are implementing strong programs with community members so we can work together to understand the unique needs of every community in the city of Pittsburgh.
Mosley:
The pandemic exposed how widespread the issue of food insecurity is. We must implement the Food Justice Fund to meet the needs of the 60,000 Pittsburghers who are food insecure. We know food insecurity can cause serious health problems and make it more difficult for children to
learn and grow. It can lead to tough decisions like choosing between food, medicine, rent, bills, and transportation. My priority for deploying the city’s Food Justice Fund would be addressing food insecurity among our children. Reducing our children’s food insecurity would involve collaboration with local school districts, youth-serving organizations, health care providers, faith-based groups, and other stakeholders. Understanding that food insecurity does not exist in a vacuum, I would also coordinate efforts to strengthen food security with regional housing and workforce development resources for those most in need.
2) What other legislation or policy measures would you support to address hunger and food apartheid in the city?
Harris:
I will support any serious legislation or policies that will address hunger and food apartheid such as quality and affordable grocery stores in every community, educating city residents on healthy eating and cooking, education and trade skills for city residents and access to quality and affordable housing. City Council has to support city residents with the right resources so eventually residents can become self-sufficient.
Mosley:
I would propose a number public solutions to address hunger and food apartheid in Pittsburgh:
- Develop a “Healthy Corners” program modeled after the Washington, D.C. initiative to increase access to healthy food. The program delivers healthy produce to corner stores in low-income neighborhoods, which face significant inequities in terms of the existence of full-service grocery stores and the availability of healthy food.
- Prioritize public, private, and philanthropic partnerships to establish supermarkets in food deserts through strategic utilization of the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, or FFFI, a grant and loan program designed to decrease financial barriers to supermarkets.
- Establish a “Good Food Purchasing Program” modeled after the Los Angeles effort leveraging the purchasing power of the city’s largest public institutions to increase demand for more socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable food. The program would focus on five values for purchasing food: local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition.
- Enact a policy that streamlines permitting and licensing to allow vendors to stock healthy food more efficiently and for local government and community-based organizations to quickly establish farmer’s markets and other spaces to sell local, fresh, and unprocessed food in low-income neighborhoods.
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