This week we’re in Oakland, CA visiting members in around the Bay Area. Here’s a look into Mandela Food Co-op, a worker-owned grocery store in West Oakland. Mandela, which opened in 2009, has 5 members and 2 additional staff. In news from the co-op: we are excited to celebrate their expansion from an 2,300 sq feet space to a much larger 6,000 sq feet space down the street in January 2018. They have been working with Rainbow Grocery to learn best practices on how to expand and creates the structures they need – yeah Principle 6!
Until that expansion happens, here’s a few pics of their current space, complete with a picture of (most of) their staff.
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- Mandela Foods Cooperative
Worker cooperatives, along with other forms of economic democracy (community agriculture, credit unions, land trusts, democratically organized community development corporations, non profit collectives, etc.), can be seen as the cornerstone of an alternative economy that can bring about social justice.
– Dennis, founding member
