MANDELA FOODS COOPERATIVE                 1430 7th Street, Oakland, CA 94607                  www.mandelafoods.com

Happy Anniversary Mandela Foods!!!

Mandela Foods celebrates one-year anniversary with community Block Party

Thanks to all our customers and supporters

About Mandela Foods

Over the last several years, Mandela MarketPlace formed strong partnerships with community members, agencies and organizations to forge a strategy for addressing root causes of poverty through entrepreneurship. Mandela Foods Cooperative formed from this partnership. Mandela Foods is a worker- and community-owned retail grocery store and nutrition education center in West Oakland that addresses economic empowerment and community health. It offers fresh, affordable produce from local family farms, food preparation classes and healthy prepared foods, as well as profit sharing with the community through community-investment accounts. 

Mandela Foods is an important addition in a community that has no grocery store to serve its approximately 25,000 residents. 

• Increase access to high quality affordable, healthy food in West Oakland
• Improve knowledge of nutrition and health among local consumersImprove economic self-sufficiency of worker-owners
• Improve the financial sustainability of local farmer
• Contribute to a system of greater food security in the community
• Contribute to economic development of the community

Mandela Foods is poised to provide fresh, affordable food in a community where no real grocery store exists to serve its 25,000 residents. A major portion of Mandela Foods produce is purchased from local farmers who use sustainable growing practices, and have a commitment to supporting the community and this enterprise. Mandela Foods provides not just jobs but entrepreneurial opportunity for low-income residents. The current co-op owners live in West Oakland, and are committed to contributing to the local economy and improving the quality of life for their West Oakland community.

This innovative project developed over the last several years with support and resources from its non-profit partner, Mandela MarketPlace (MMPlace), as well as residents, agencies and other local businesses.  Local residents, including those invested in Mandela Foods, created the West Oakland Food Collaborative, consisting of concerned residents, churches, and community organizations. Over nine months, the current Executive Director of Mandela MarketPlace facilitated meetings that resulted in the food security plan that currently drives the efforts of diverse community members and organizations working to address food access inequities in West Oakland.

Mandela Foods is located along the first new retail corridor built in West Oakland in over 25 years. The new kitchen and education center will serve to enhance the food quality and nutrition of approximately 60,000 daily meals consumed by West Oakland residents. Construction of the $600,000 food cooperative, including the kitchen/nutrition center and equipment, began in September of 2008 at its 7th Street site in the Mandela Gateway Village project.

Successes: Executed lease for a highly-visible store across from a major (BART) transit hub. Developed legal, financial and business aspects with over 6,000 hours of technical support from paid and pro-bono consultants. Secured over $600,000 in financial support for construction costs. Secured financial and technical assistance support to implement an entrepreneurship training program. Graduated 15 low-income community residents from the Phase I entrepreneurship training program -- 8 of whom have continued onto Phase III as the initial principle business owners of Mandela Foods. Mandela Foods has received foundation, agency funding and community support from the City Councilmember for West Oakland – Nancy Nadel, West Oakland Project Advisory Committee -- City of Oakland Redevelopment Agency,  Federal Home Loan Bank - San Francisco, Walter & Elise Haas Foundation, and Lower Bottoms Neighborhood Association.

Mandela Foods sets a footprint for a culturally rich destination.  It empowers residents to build a local economy, increase food access and support family farmers and a healthier community.