We just got an enlightening message on People’s Grocery’s facebook page from an extraordinary woman named Joan Tarika Lewis who, in addition to being a jazz violinist, visual artist, historian, lecturer and teacher, identifies herself as the “first female recruit of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense”. With a rich knowledge of African American history and struggle in the Bay Area, Tarika sent us the following message, which I thought readers might appreciate:

“People’s Grocery-I applaud your dynamic efforts. In South
more…

To find out what food demand
more…

The OneCalifornia Foundation, a local nonprofit organization here in Oakland, runs an online marketplace called Oakland Unwrapped! with the goal of making it very easy for community members to support our local economy by shopping at Oakland-owned independent businesses and artists. Oakland Unwrapped recently expanded its marketplace to include Oakland businesses and artists that already have e-commerce sites. The idea is that the more great local online shops that are in one marketplace the more useful it is to the shopper and, therefore, the more beneficial to
more…

One of our Grub Box customers told us about a very interesting story about how a friend of his had argued that Whole Foods Market has more affordable produce than People’s Grocery’s Grub Box. Our customer’s friend wanted to challenge the premise that People’s Grocery’s $12 Grub Box is more affordable than a similar basket of produce sold at Whole Foods. So they went to Whole Foods and put together a basket of produce that was comparable to our Grub Box. The grand total at the cash register was ….. $30!  Apparently they were pretty surprised at the difference in price and had to acknowledge that the Grub Box was a better deal.

more…

Yesterday the new Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, announced an initiative to create a community garden at each USDA facility worldwide. Vilsack is calling these gardens “The People’s Gardens” in honor of Abraham Lincoln who had referred to the USDA as “The People’s Department”.

Vilsack stated that these gardens will promote “green concepts” like low-water usage landscaping and using native plants. The first People’s Garden is being built on the grounds of the USDA headquarters. A stretch of pavement is going to be dug up in order for the garden to be built, which Vilsack pointed to as a way of “restoring the land back to its natural condition…”

This seems like a very significant shift in the USDA’s approach to land
more…

Many of us who working at the community level in Oakland to push for entrepreneurial solutions to the many economic, social and health needs of our communities have known for a long time that Oakland presents strong retail market opportunities that can support local economic development and job creation. But it appears that many key decision makers (including those in Oakland itself) didn’t realize, or believe in, the existence of strong markets in Oakland’s communities.

There are now signs that public officials and developers are beginning to see the light in Oakland. Oakland Tribune writer Cecily Burt posted an article on January 29 entitled Oakland has big dreams for retail, but will they come? in which she reported on a
more…

On Saturday January 17 we held the first People’s Grocery Grub Party of 2009. The event was a huge success, with many residents turning out and enjoying a great program, conversation and, of course, great food. But January’s Grub Party was not just a success in terms of turnout and program. It was also a success for People’s Grocery in making progress toward a long-held vision of an integrated approach toward community building and change in which the West Oakland residents that we work with, as customers and clients, are participating in more than just one of our offers and/or programs.

more…

Many people have asked us about our relationship to the Mandela Foods Cooperative effort here in West Oakland. I want to quickly tell people about People’s Grocery’s past relationship to this effort and our support for it.

People’s Grocery was a part of this effort about 4 years ago under what was then called the West Oakland Food Collaborative. At that time the store that the collaborative was planning for was called SoulFoods Coop. For a number of reasons, including differences about location, store size and decision making process, People’s Grocery chose to pull out of the effort (along with other local groups such as Mo Better Food and Black Dot Artists Collective) and began pursuing our own store
more…

Once in a while we receive some great feedback from a client/resident that really reveals the difference that People’s Grocery is making. The following is a letter we received in December from Pamela Deering, who is a West Oakland resident and a Grub Box customer. Her letter was very uplifting for our staff and boosted our inspiration. I hope you find this letter as inspiring as we did…………….

“Dear Brahm and every single one of you at Peoples’ Grocery,

My roommate started buying grub boxes in the summer of this year, after she asked me if I thought it was a good idea.  I said, hell yes!   I do most of our cooking, and it’s always sad how
more…

Happy 2009 everybody! I got kind of slack in my blogging toward the end of ‘08. So my new year’s resolution is to blog more in order to respond to the great feedback and interest I get from this blog.

We recently learned about an amazing rap song and video called “Hood Diet” that sums up much of of what People’s Grocery’s work is all about… in true hip hop fashion. The artist is Yonkers-based Loer Velocity and features DonnanLinx. The lyrics are amazing, so check out the video at this youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvECT82bTo