ohip street vendors study 2014
DESCRIPTION
Identifying the health and safety hazards of street mobile food vendorsTRANSCRIPT
Behind the smiles...Identifying the health and safety hazards of street mobile food vendors
Karen Calderon, M.A., Political Science SDSU Jessica Vu, B.S. ,B.S., Public Health and Human Biology UCSDIn partnership with the Employee Rights Center (ERC)
Background• Informal Economy• Criminalization • Community Controversy
Examples of Mobile Street Food Vendor Food
Objectives• Learn more about street mobile
food vendors• Involve involve them in the
street food movement• Identify and respond to H&S
issues • Ultimate goal: Legalization of all
mobile food vending in City Heights
Methods• Mixed methods (qualitative
and quantitative)•Surveys•In-depth interviews•Focus Groups
General Results
● 48 interviews○ 74 % paleteros ○ 26% food vendors
● 2 focus groups○ 7 participants
● Demographics
Sites: schools, parks, alleys, small businesses, ERC
Psychological Hazards
Poor living conditions
“What is the cause of the stress/pressure?”
Workplace Violence
Physical Hazards
As one paletero describes it:
“Caminamos 10 o hasta 15 millas… y luego puchando el carrito cargado de paletas todo el dia. Pues como no te va doler el cuerpo?”
Physical and Environmental Hazards
•Climate•dehydration•fatigue •heat-strokes
•Burns•Frost-burns•Stove burns
Paletero showing his frost-burn scar from handling the ice-cream.
Give Back Project
Example of Dry-fit shirt
For Workers: For the ERC and the public:
Business Survey Results•11 participants (all small business owners) •Most agreed (~90%) that street vendors should be legalized •Focused on public health safety issues as well as economic issues
Successes:•Increase the number of participants
•Earn their trust•Extended help to worker’s families
•Gathered multiple points of views on the same issue
Challenges:•Finding participants •Explaining to the workers that we did not have an immediate solution
•Language barrier
Challenges and Successes
Recommendations•Expand on the preliminary business surveys•Keep contact with street vendors•When collecting data, make a distinction between paleteros and mobile street food vendors
•When hiring future interns, it would be more beneficial to have at least two spanish-speaking interns.
Karen and Jessica’s Reflections
Acknowledgements Thank You to:
• NIOSH• The California
Wellness Foundation• OHIP• ERC• Alor Calderon• Adriana Huerta-Reyes• Brenda Diaz• Peter Zschiesche• Laura Yamaguchi• Parke Troutman• All of the street food
vendors!
ERC Team
Paletero