The Healthy Grocery Initiative (HGI) focused on supporting both businesses and food access. Our goal was to empower independent grocery stores to become viable, affordable, and health-promoting food access points and community hubs.

Our team offered digital marketing, customized in-store assistance, and advocacy for the interests of small businesses such as the Sweet and Sugar Beverage (SSB) Tax and ADA compliance support.

These community grocery stores improved access to food by providing relevant programs in appropriate locations, reaching communities that larger retail chains often neglected as unprofitable.

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Learn More about HGI

Our pop-up markets brought fresh, high-quality, and sustainably grown fruits and vegetables to communities that are under-served by more established farmers' market programs. Our network of produce stands consisted of eight weekly pop-up markets throughout Oakland.

Located at the North Oakland Senior Center, the West Oakland Health Council, the Oakland Public Library, and five elementary schools, our program is sourced from and supports limited-resource, sustainable farmers that grow within 200 miles of Oakland.

We worked collaboratively with our in-house distribution center – Mandela Produce Distribution – to ensure that our program sourced from and supported these farmers with competitive pricing and stable retail outlets. 

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We're back! Click here to learn more about visiting our stands.

The Ashland Cherryland Food Policy Council (ACFPC) was an effort supported by Mandela Partners to ensure that local government policy efforts created a secure food system and a vibrant agricultural “green” community in the Ashland Cherryland community. Now the Eden Area Food Alliance (EAFA), council members continue to help prioritize local plans involving land access, land use for growing and harvesting of food, community greening, urban farms, street vending, farmers markets, and efforts contributing to local sustainability.

The Urban Greening Master Plan project was catalyzed by a group of residents that wanted to take action to address community disparities by designating Ashland Cherryland as a “green district.”

The Plans sought to inform the active Eden Area Livability Initiative process (EALI*), by creating a chance to add greening and environment projects to housing and health planning. Mandela MarketPlace facilitated the creation of a resident-informed Master Plan for a healthy green community.

Read the Master Plan Draft

Mandela Partners' youth programs explored food through the lens of social justice so that young people were informed and inspired to transform their nutritional health and the health of their communities.

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Read about WYSE

In partnership with the West Oakland Health Center, the Foods to Families (F2F) program provided health & wellness workshops, cooking demos, and group experiences for community families.

Through an integrated curriculum, mothers gained expertise and share resources to build the health of their families and communities.

In addition to regular classes, expecting mothers also received healthy food 'prescriptions' which could be redeemed at any Healthy Neighborhood Store Alliance (HNSA) partners to incentivize healthy eating in their daily lives, complementing the F2F curriculum.

Read about Food to Families