Good Food News-Coop Community

Fast Company shares a positive story about West Oakland community members that opened their own grocery store to bring healthy food to their neighborhood. In 2009, they launched Mandela Foods Cooperative, a health food store with a small but Whole Foods-like produce section.

Despite the high failure rates of new businesses, the store has survived. This year, it will expand into a new retail space more than twice as large. The foundation of the store’s success,  they say, is the community’s support for it, and the commitment of the coop’s worker-owners to keep it going.

They may open more locations in Vallejo and East Oakland, which also lack convenient access to healthy food. Now that’s a community that takes care of each other!