Amani Ali leads the Healthy Grocery Initiative (HGI) of the Oakland-based nonprofit, Mandela Partners (MP). Through HGI, Amani partners with Oakland store owners to support business growth, build customer loyalty, and increase healthy food options, such as fresh, frozen, lightly processed, and packaged fruits and vegetables, in their communities. She provides support services to reach mission-aligned store improvement goals.
We have heard repeatedly that East Oakland is a food desert, almost as if this is an immutable fact. However, it is more accurately a food apartheid. Overtly racist government policies like redlining led to disinvestment in East Oakland. …
Amani Ali
Amani is a food justice advocate by day, pool player by night and a writer somewhere in between.
