Brahm’s Blog

With sales of organics growing up to 20% each year the organic food industry is experiencing record growth rates above any other food sector. Despite this phenomenal growth in the sales of organic foods, many low-income consumers still have limited access to affordable fresh and healthy food and almost no access to organic or sustainably produced food. Such limited access to healthier foods is contributing to an epidemic of diet-related diseases such as heart disease, hyper tension and diabetes.

Currently, the organic food industry is not targeting low-income people, due largely to a pervasive assumption that there is no market in low-income communities for organic food. With the simultaneous growth of the organic food industry and the industry of cheap processed foods we are seeing an emergence of two parallel food systems — one for the affluent and one for the poor. This begs the questions: Who is organic food for? What is, if any, its social purpose? Is it to only benefit a select few or is it built on a notion of equity and human rights?

Despite all of the challenges and barriers that exist in low-income communities, more and more low-income people are desiring and purchasing organic, natural and local foods. Naturally, low-income people, like all human beings, want to be healthy, to eat good food that is good for them and to support sustainable and local foods - despite prevalent stereotypes that they don’t want it.

When low-income people are given opportunity to become educated about their food choices and have access to such foods they will buy them and will often prefer to do so. Many people go out of their way and make extraordinary efforts to get better food for their families. This is partially triggered by diet-related illnesses that are affecting nearly every household.

However the neglect of low-income communities the food industry has not slowed the trend of a growing market of organic consumers in these communities. In the near future the organic industry will begin to saturate its existing markets and will need to enter new markets to maintain growth. Low-income communities are becoming such new markets for organic foods.

In order for natural food companies to successfully enter these new markets they will need to utilize new marketing approaches grounded in local partnerships that access existing community networks. Local partnerships can provide legitimacy, cultural competency and appropriate framing of marketing. Local partners can provide much of the initial pioneering and “on-the-ground” efforts for educating consumers and introducing new products. Education will be foundational to the emergence of organic food markets in low-income communities. Community-based organizations can leverage their established educational programs to deliver the message of their partners. Thus, private companies can partner with community-based organizations to develop innovative educational and marketing campaigns to reach entirely new populations.

Since we recently moved into a new office location we thought it would be nice to show the space off to some of our supporters and bring some extra warmth and energy into the space. So on Thursday 8/23 we held an office warming party that was attended by about 40 people of all backgrounds. Here are a few photos from the party.

Staff member Geralina Fortier, former Board member Pat Brown, and Bobby from Just Cause do their best to warm up the space.

Here I am mingling with Shanay, a recent transplant from Brooklyn looking to get involved.

Staff member Vicki Ramos samples the beverages….they’re organic of course!

Two supporters of PG meet each other for the first time and strike up a conversation.

A supporter of People’s Grocery recently read the article about us in the East Bay Express and sent us the following words of encouragement. Dimitria articulates a beautiful message about what is truly important in life and how good work can truly make a difference.

“It is so refreshing to read about your challenges trying to do country in the big city! I grew up in Novato, California, one of seven children in a Big Greek Family. We grew all of our own vegetables, raised chickens… our own eggs, milk from the dairy next door, fruits from all our trees we canned each year. Seemed so simple then, it was the way of life!

Now we live in this hugely modern world, trying to duplicate the same thing via the ‘country farm desire’ in the ‘city farm environment!’ I wish that we could go back in time when we were growing our yards by the bundle full, never having the situations or misgivings that now radiate in the current organic growth industry….we just grew simply, and ate abundantly without reservation or thought. We had to survive and growing our own was the key, the overgrowth we canned or gave to our neighbors! In short we shared.

If we could come up with the same ideals of the old days, I think that you can find success in your gardens, find those volunteers who come with open eyes and arms and heart to seeing your gardens grow, and put in the same effort/efforts that we did in the past and give now to these lovely places that are awaiting your produce grown with love, care and goodness!

Grow with the belief that it shall come out in time, learn the short and long of this growing, the timing, do not fret, Mother Nature is in control and your just behind the wheel trying to steer!!

I wish you all the best……Dimitria Letsos

The current issue of the East Bay Express features an article about People’s Grocery. Click here to read the article at the East Bay Express website. It is also posted below.

City Farm, Country Farm
People’s Grocery gets a plot in the country, and some high-end clientele.
By John Birdsall
Published: August 15, 2007

Life in the ‘hood can be stressful, but moving to the country is no walk in the park when expectations are high. Just ask Jason Uribe, farm manager at a shaggy-looking plot that’s part of People’s Grocery’s five-year-old mission to bring decent produce to West Oakland.

The nonprofit, perhaps best known for the brightly painted produce van that used to make the rounds in flatland neighborhoods, planted its first seeds in the Sunol Water Temple Agricultural Park midway through last year’s growing season.

The seventeen-acre park, an idyllic stretch in the unincorporated southern Alameda County town, is owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Sustainable Agriculture Education, a Berkeley nonprofit, holds the master lease. AgPark farmers pay nominal rent and water costs.

People’s Grocery already cultivates three urban gardens, but its two-acre AgPark plot lets it think big by city standards. Executive director Brahm Ahmadi says it was a good move. It helps school young people in the complex issues of food security in West Oakland, where a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos can be a kid’s default breakfast.

He hopes to launch a neighborhood produce dropoff next spring. He calls it the SOUL Box — for Seasonal, Organic, Unrefined, and Local. But that project depends on raising cash this season by selling niche crops to local chefs. And pleasing a small but hyperdiscerning restaurant clientele is what makes Jason Uribe wake up in the middle of the night, sweating out his bush beans.

This morning, Uribe is squatting in a row of Romano beans, dragging a plastic bin as he works to harvest the smallish specimens his customers expect. The 31-year-old is on the learning curve of farming. At least half of his job is to educate — the farm relies on five youth volunteers two days a week, but today they’re at a youth empowerment conference, and Uribe is working solo. “Since this morning, I’ve only gotten this far,” he says, pointing to a spot a dozen feet away.

More than half of the beans he’s picking end up on the ground at the base of the plants, too big to sell. He should have spaced out his planting times better, he says, so things wouldn’t need harvesting all at once.

Early last month, People’s Grocery delivered its first beans to Chez Panisse, and in late July Berkeley’s Eccolo got its first order. The six varieties of peppers stretched out over three long rows are promised to the restaurant at Wente Vineyards in Livermore.

At least one of the customers is thrilled. “We buy from the best farms, but these were incredible,” says Eccolo sous-chef Samin Nosrat, describing that first batch of Romano, yellow wax, and French beans. “So sweet.”

But when you’re in the midst of a seat-of-the-pants farming experiment, there’s no time to rest on a rave review. Now Uribe is stressing about okra. He planted three varieties, but isn’t sure there’s been enough heat. “I’m always worried,” he admits.

The road to food security, it seems, can leave those in charge feeling very, very insecure.