Mission
Healthy Food for Everyone!
People's Grocery is a community-based organization in West Oakland that develops creative solutions to the health, environmental and economic challenges our community faces every day.
The number one cause of death in West
Oakland is not violence, but heart disease - accounting for 29% of all deaths from 1996-1998.
Source: Alameda County Public Health Department of Vital Statistics
We want to change the way the food system works. Our mission is to develop a self-reliant, socially just and sustainable food system in West Oakland through community-based, youth-focused and innovative social enterprises, urban agricultural projects, educational programs and public policy initiatives that foster healthy, equitable and ecological community development.
We believe everyone deserves healthy food, regardless of income. In our view, it's about "food justice" - the human right to Healthy Food for Everyone.
What We Do
What We Do
We have found that when you give people access to healthy and affordable food, you also begin address problems like diet-related diseases, which are at epidemic levels in communities like West Oakland.
We think: why stop at improving the physical health of the community? So we also provide nutrition education, create sorely-needed jobs, develop local cooperative businesses and help young people become entrepreneurs and leaders.
In the short term, our residents need healthier foods, stable employment, job training and meaningful educational opportunities. However, our vision is much larger than that.
We are building an independent food system and a local economy grounded in community partnerships and a local knowledge-base. We want to give people the tools to control their own food supply and help our community to become more self-reliant.
Our activities include:
- Educating residents about sustainable agriculture, heath/nutrition, and food justice
- Providing employment, entrepreneurial business training and life skills for youth
- Developing food-related enterprises and small businesses
- Developing methods of low-cost food distribution and marketing
- Supporting local family farms, organic farms and farmers of color
- Strengthening the ability to produce food locally through urban agriculture
- Advocating for policy changes at the governmental and institutional level
Read more about People's Grocery programs
People
The People of People's Grocery
Brahm Ahmadi
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Brahm Ahmadi is an Iranian-American who grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in Oakland, CA. He has a B.A. in Sociology from the University of California and is an MBA candidate at the Presidio School of Management. Brahm combines social enterprise, cooperative economics, urban agriculture, public education and youth development to build healthy and stable inner city communities. He is also Executive Director of the North Oakland Land Trust, which preserves properties in North Oakland for the exclusive purpose of community gardening. Brahm is active in worker-owned cooperative business development and organizing for economic democracy and was a founding board member of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives.
Jason Uribe
Farm Manager/ Educator
A product of the Oakland Public School district, Jason Uribe comes to us from Longfellow Middle School in the Berkeley Public School District, where he taught garden based curriculum to 6th and 7th grade science classes. Before that Jason worked for many Oakland organizations including the East Bay Conservation Corps/ Americorps program, Youth Employment Partnership/We Mean Clean program, and the Student Conservation Association's Oakland office. Jason brings a background of urban gardening, youth empowerment, community activism and a passion for social change.
Geralina Fortier
Peer Nutrition Coordinator
Geralina Fortier has grown through the ranks of People's Grocery for the past several years. She recently finished the Baumann College nutritional education program and is proudly representing People's Grocery in our community and spreading the word about healthy food to anyone who will listen.
People's Grocery Board of Directors
Februrary 11th marked the inaugural meeting of the new People's Grocery Board of Directors. We are blessed and excited to have such an incredibly wise, talented and seasoned group of activists, farmers, community members, business people helping guide the direction of the organization! Click here to read more about our Board of Directors
Pat Brown
Queen of Culture Catering
Gordon Edgar
Co-op Committee, Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
Malaika Edwards
Co-Founder, People's Grocery
Geralina Fortier
Youth Staff, People's Grocery
Tiffany Golden
Co-Manager, Farm Fresh Choice
Wendy Johnson
Green Gulch Farms & Edible School Yard
Paul Liotsakis
Small Village Enterprises
Africa Williams
Community Building Coordinator, City of Oakland
Katherine Youngmeister
Regional Executive Committee, American Friends Service Committee
John Yuasa
Senior Program Manager, Greenlining Institute
Join us!
We are always accepting resumes from dedicated, enthusiastic people who are interested in transforming the food system. Send your resume to: Info@PeoplesGrocery.org
Get involved with People's Grocery
