People’s Grocery is a community-based organization founded in 2002 by residents of West Oakland who saw that the health and quality of life of low-income families in their community were being negatively affected by poor conditions within the “food landscape” such as insufficient access to nutritious and healthy foods, disenfranchisement from regional agriculture and food production, lack of nutritional knowledge and limited capacity to meet their own food consumption needs.

Seeking to address the rise of diet-related chronic diseases and improve the qualty of life in the community, People’s Grocery’s mission is to build a local food system that improves the health and economy of the West Oakland community.  Our approach is to utilize the valuable resource and traditions in the West Oakland community, and engage youth and families, to improve the conditions of their neighborhoods. People’s Grocery focuses on nutrition education, sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship and youth development as means for creating change in West Oakland.

The agency’s primary goals for the community are:
1.    Educate residents about food systems, sustainable agriculture, cooking, and nutrition.
2.    Provide access to locally grown, healthy, culturally appropriate and affordable food.
3.    Employ and train youth as leaders in the food system and their community.
4.    Build self-reliance through employment, training, and local business development.
5.    Build the capacity to produce food locally through sustainable agriculture.

People’s Grocery operates three program areas in support of community health, job creation and a sustainable food system.  Each program involves community and youth participation.

URBAN AGRICULTURE PROGRAM

With 80% of the world’s population now living in cities, urban areas are increasingly important places in developing ecologically sustainable food systems. People’s Grocery works to develop, advocate and educate for new forms of agricultural food production and land use within urban areas. We work to increase community self-reliance by increasing the local capacity to grow and produce food through a robust network of gardens and micro-farms.

Urban Gardening

We work to increase the capacity within West Oakland to grow food and increase the availability of affordable and fresh produce for low-income residents. Our Urban Agriculture Program currently operates 4 urban gardens in the North and West Oakland areas that are interconnected into a system of sustainable food production:

1) 55th St. Community Garden (55th St. near San Pablo Ave.) – A 4,500 Sq Ft urban garden with fruit tress, shade structures, an elaborate composting program, resident garden plots, and a solar-powered irrigation system.  This site, once an abandoned and blighted vacant lot, now has 20 vegetable beds that produce an abundance of seasonal produce and 8 framed raised beds for medicinal herbs, perennials, flowers and natives plants.

2) YMCA Garden (32nd St. & Market St.) – A small, but incredibly productive garden that specializes in leafy greens, this garden is located at the M. Robinson Baker YMCA and presents a diverse set of opportunities for educating children who attend the YMCA programs about ecology, gardening and nutrition.

3) Ralph Bunch Middle School Greenhouse (18th St. and Adeline St.) – This glass and aluminum greenhouse, located on a public middle school, is where we propagate our vegetables and herbs from seed to then transfer to one of the above gardens or to give away to residents. This greenhouse project, coupled with 6 garden beds and dozen fruit trees, provides a perfect on-campus environment for the delivery of educational curriculum to students.

4) 59th Street Spiral Garden (59th St. near Market St.) – We have started work on our newest garden, the 59th Street Spiral Garden, located on 59th Street. We are collaborating with Spiral Gardens Community Food Security Project to reconstruct this plot of land back into the beautiful urban garden that it once was.

Agriculture Park

People’s Grocery has begun an exciting partnership with the Sustainable Agriculture Education Center (SAGE) to expand our food production activities to a more significant scale through the launch of an Agriculture Park in Sunol, CA. The Agriculture Park is a 15 acre parcel of prime agricultural land adjacent to the historic San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Water Temple in the Sunol Valley watershed. Situated among the hills of Sunol and a short distance to Pleasanton, the Agriculture Park presents a unique opportunity for developing a land use approach to addressing suburban sprawl, preserving historic farm land and strengthening the local food system. Part working farm and part parkland, the Agriculture Park incorporates food production and agricultural education through a collaborative model in which multiple community organizations and farmers lease portions of the land. People’s Grocery is one of four subtenant groups and presently cultivates two acres of land at the Agriculture Park to grow fresh produce for West Oakland residents. We hope to increase our acreage in the near future.

COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROGRAM

Peoples Grocery creates awareness in the West Oakland community about sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, nutrition and healthy eating to enable residents to improve their health, strengthen the local economy and build a stronger relationship to food and farming. We develop educational programs that engage children, teens and adults in hands-on learning to transform their lifestyles towards health and civic engagement.

1) Youth Food Systems Training Program (Y-FST) – Y-FST provides West Oakland youth with meaningful employment and training to make a difference in their community by becoming leaders in building a local food system and increasing community food security. The program provides hands on leadership development for youth by engaging them in community gardening, nutrition education and entrepreneurship.

2) Adult Nutritional Cooking Class – Dubbed the “Eating for Health and Longevity” cooking class, this program offers free, 6-week evening courses for adult residents focused on the preparation of balanced meals using healthy ingredients.  Led by cooking and nutrition instructor Lori Camille, these classes present creative cooking activities that promote healthy lifestyles based on fundamental cooking knowledge and ingredient selection.

3) Peer-2-Peer Education Program – Based on the belief that informed young people are the best agents for delivering relevant nutrition education to their peers, the Peer-2-Peer Education Program was founded by a group of youth staff members at People’s Grocery to develop workshops and presentations on nutrition, food preferences and healthy eating targeted to elementary, middle and high schools, after school programs, church groups and special events.

4) Garden Nutrition Program – Recognizing the benefits that gardening presents for nutrition education and physical activity for children, the Garden Nutrition Program combines gardening activities, nutrition workshops and cooking classes to deliver fun and hands-on education to the children and youth attending three institutions: the M Robinson Baker YMCA, Hoover Elementary School and Ralph Bunche Academy Middle School.

5) Food & Justice Camp – Twice a year People’s Grocery organizes a Food & Justice Camp in partnership with other local food security organizations. The camp is targeted at low-income youth from West Oakland and other low-income areas of the San Francisco Bay Area to introduce and educate young people about various issues related to health and food in today’s society, including local food systems, sustainable agriculture, healthy eating, nutrition and physical activity.

ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

People’s Grocery believes that social enterprises and small business are essential to addressing the complex needs that exist within the West Oakland community. Our enterprise development efforts focus on developing food enterprises that increase access to fresh, local and healthy foods in West Oakland while also contributing to community economic development by providing employment and training opportunities to local residents.

SOUL Box Program – SOUL stands for Seasonal, Organic, Unrefined, and Local. The SOUL Box Program makes fresh fruits and vegetables conveniently available to residents of West Oakland who are enrolled in the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) Card food stamp program. The SOUL Box is a type of modified CSA program in which People’s Grocery works with the Scott Family Farm, an African American farming family in Fresno, to pack and distribute weekly boxes of produce to central drop off sites in West Oakland. Participants who can not usually afford the advance subscription requirements of CSA programs can purchase a monthly subscription through their EBT cards at the beginning of each month when food stamps are disbursed. Subscribers receive a newsletter with their weekly boxes that include information about the Scott Family Farm, recipes and healthy eating tips.

Cooperative Grocery Store– Since 2002 People’s Grocery has worked to build a foundation in the West Oakland community towards the development of a cooperative grocery store in which local food and sustainable agriculture is prioritized in a community health model centered on health and nutrition education. We are now in full pursuit of this vision and developing plans to acquire a location, secure financing, recruit partners and debuting the project. Our grocery store will be a central and active anchor for personal and community health. In addition to a full-service grocery store we will provide onsite education programs focused on nutrition education and improving consumer health. These in-house programs will include:

•    Free monthly workshops and seminars will be offered that cover a wide variety of topics such as nutrition, healthy eating, sustainable agriculture and the benefits of consuming local foods.
•    A nutrition consulting counter, called the Nutrition Nook, will staff volunteer nutritionists and interns to provide free nutrition consulting to customers.
•    A cooking school that offers cooking classes to engage customers in healthful food preparation and greater understanding of the store’s products.
•    An on-site Demonstration Garden will provide hands-on education and serve as a venue for workshops and gatherings.

The People’s Grocery store will be a unique source and promoter of local foods with direct ties to the local food system and sustainable agriculture through supplier relationships to regional and small farmers and to our organization’s own agriculture programs. Our store will be a driver for economic development in West Oakland by employing and training a workforce of over 100 employees through a worker-owned cooperative that that bolsters equity among workers and provides them with greater control over their workplace through democratic decision making. We will train the worker-owners in customer service, technology, financial literacy and business management. Every worker will also receive training in basic nutrition, health and product awareness and bear the title of a “Wellness Promoter” in which they are equipped to assist customers with their food purchasing decisions and to offer educational materials and product samples.