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Guest Blog - Planning Fellow Brahm Ahmadi
A 2007 ROC Fellow, Brahm is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of People’s Grocery and a leader noted for commitment to social justice, cooperative economics and access to healthy food for low-income, inner-city communities. Brahm is leading an effort to create a new retail format for West Oakland that will model a way to overcome the challenge of urban food deserts. Brahm is also active in organizing for economic democracy and was a founding board member of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives.

August 23, 2007
When I attended the ROC Statewide meeting on March 3 in San Francisco I was simultaneously inspired and disappointed by what I observed. On the one hand, I was inspired by the momentum and resources being placed behind such a necessary and important vision. On the other hand, I was disappointed that there were so few people of color in attendance, that the vision was not entirely inclusive of truly diverse perspectives and that the leadership of ROC, and those who were its spokes people, were mostly of homogenous ethnic and political backgrounds.

I and others voiced our concerns at the meeting that the direction that ROC
was heading in posed a risk of marginalizing the most vulnerable communities
in California. Michael's Dimock's response was "Stop complaining and please
come help us figure how to do this". Well, he didn't exactly tell us to stop
complaining, but he did make a wholehearted invitation for us to join the
effort to figure how best to make ROC's work meaningful and transformative
for all of California's communities. I felt a commitment and an openness to
improving and changing ROC's strategy so I decided to take Michael up on his
invitation and I applied for the ROC Planning Fellowship.  

The experience I subsequently had as a ROC planning fellow was incredible
and, in many ways, very inspiring. In a very short period of time the
fellows formed a strong community bound together by our shared dreams for a
more just and sustainable food system that could help create a better world.
Through the course of nine days of meetings we got to know each other quite
well and sought to understand each others' perspectives, even when we didn't
agree. While there were certainly moments of heated and passionate debate,
there was always an under current of mutual respect and a shared
understanding that we all, ultimately, wanted the same things.

While there were some really foggy and unclear moments in the process where
many of us were unsure that we would make it through with any degree of
success, at the end a lot of impressive work was accomplished. For those of
us representing marginalized communities, the experience was an important
one in bolstering our belief and confidence in ROC as an inclusive effort.
While at the end we might have wanted to see some of the objectives that
directly impact marginalized communities get a higher priority ranking, we
were pretty happy that the group honored and understood the importance of
our struggles as integral to transforming the food system of California.

I learned a great deal from the other fellows in the process. These
individuals collectively wield an astounding level of knowledge. I was
thoroughly educated in entirely new concepts and areas of the food system
that I had previously given little thought to. I have incorporated some of
my learning into my work and leadership at People's Grocery. I also made
connections with a lot of people who I continue to work with. Eric
Holt-Gimenez and I are working on a public education campaign about the
entrance of the UK mega-chain TESCO into California. Don Shaffer is helping
me refine the financial model for our grocery store business plan. Harry
Blazer is providing some pro-bono consultation in developing our marketing
and operational strategies. Jonathan Kaplan introduced me to Eileen Brady of
New Seasons Markets and I'm going to visit their operation in September to
learn about their business model. Bu Nygrens has been consulting with me on
building our wholesale produce business and our farm operation. Jon Ramer is
going to help us develop a communications plan. And the list goes on.

By far, the most invaluable aspect of my experience as a ROC fellow has been
the relationships that were built or deepened with other fellows. It is
relationships and collaborations like these that are the essence of building
a movement for social change and I can definitely say that the ROC planning
fellowship took us a lot further down the path of creating a true movement
for California's future.

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