Business

Mandela Grocery Cooperative Celebrates a Decade of Thriving

Published

7 years ago

June 14, 2019

(L to R) Adrionna Fike, Briana Sidney, Andrea Talley James Bell and Ryan Daniels celebrate Mandela Grocery Cooperative’s 10th birthday on June 7, 2019. They work in and own the cooperative. Photo by Zack Haber.

Mandela Grocery Cooperative (MGC) in West Oakland celebrated its 10th year in business on June 7 with a street party.

Farmers and suppliers who collaborate with the co-op set up booths to showcase their products, and hundreds of community members showed up to celebrate and show support.

“The fact that MGC is a co-op and works on a small scale allows it to more easily develop personal relationships with clients, showcase more local producers, and I’m more able to meet their volume demands,” said Jamil Burns, a Black, small-scale urban farmer, speaking at the celebration while he sold his lettuce, onions and other produce. He recently started selling some of his crops to MGC.

It’s often difficult or impossible for small farmers to sell to large grocery stores that demand a much larger volume of product than MGC does, accoridng to locals.

MGC gives a market to producers like Burns while their commitment to direct relationships allows them to cut out middlemen such as distributors, which both provides farmers with more money and helps to keep prices down.

MGC is different than most grocery stores, Black owned and operated . Its cooperative structure means that there are no bosses. Of the 11 employees, eight of them are owners.

Once the three non-owner employees have completed 1,000 hours of work or a year of employment, they’ll also have the opportunity to become owners.

“Every product you see in our store,” said owner/worker Adrianna Fike, “is here because somebody who works here really wanted it here.”

MGC owner/workers meet weekly to discuss new products and new ideas for the store. They make their decisions by consensus and require that all eight members come to a general agreement before accepting a new product, employee or plan.

Usually when something new is proposed, the group agrees. But discussion and clarifying questions come first, which MGC encourages.

“We applaud and appreciate when workers and owner/workers ask questions,” said Fike, who felt in previous jobs that she often had to bite her tongue when she had an idea or a question.

One reason MGC owners and owner/workers work well together, they say, is that they have similar values, and the mission of the store is clear.

“The goals we have are to continuously provide clean healthy food at affordable prices for underserved communities and to educate people on the importance of eating healthy, especially in urban neighborhoods where people often have ailments due to nutrition deficiencies,” said worker/owner James Bell.

It’s important to MGC’s owners that workers have as much knowledge of products as possible, so owners encourage new employees to read the list of ingredients in products and to try them out.

While MGC has fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, eggs, grains and enough products to provide customers with all their grocery shopping needs, the store is small enough for the employees to have a deep knowledge of every product.

Curious customers can learn a lot about food and health by talking to MGC’s workers. MGC plans to open up its kitchen soon to do live demonstrations.

Since many of MGC’s customers are struggling economically, worker/owners do what they can to keep prices low while still providing themselves with a living wage and benefits like health care.

They make their intentions clear with vendors and are sometimes able to buy products cheaper than other stores can, which allows them to charge customers less. They provide a 50 percent discount on California produce for people who use food stamps.

While working in a retail job can feel competitive and stressful, MGC’s employees claim that’s not how they feel at work.

“We’re not competing with one another,” said Fike, “The goal is not to stay up all night trying to make everything happen. Sometimes it’s hard, but most of the time working here is fun.”

Zack Haber

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Business

How Oakland’s Courtsmith is Scaling its Business and Local Impact

OAKLAND POST — “As Courtsmith grew, scaling wasn’t just about selling more—it was about building the infrastructure to deliver consistently, with a strong supply chain and production process,” said Courtney Smith, founder of Courtsmith. “We needed the right kind of capital and partners to help us expand without losing the Oakland authenticity that made us who we are.”

Published

3 days ago

August 1, 2026

bpusa-syndication

With support from ICA Fund and JPMorganChase, founder Courtney Smith is strengthening his supply chain, creating jobs and expanding local production, and positioning the Oakland-born brand for long-term growth

When Courtney Smith founded Courtsmith in Oakland in 2014, he was building more than an athletic apparel company. A lifelong basketball enthusiast, Smith saw an opportunity to create performance wear that reflected the culture of the game—its style, community and sense of belonging.

From the beginning, Courtsmith was rooted in the idea that basketball is not just a sport, but a lifestyle and a community. The brand set out to make athletes look and feel good on and off the court while building partnerships that give athletes a stake in the products and stories they help shape.

“As Courtsmith grew, scaling wasn’t just about selling more—it was about building the infrastructure to deliver consistently, with a strong supply chain and production process,” said Courtney Smith, founder of Courtsmith. “We needed the right kind of capital and partners to help us expand without losing the Oakland authenticity that made us who we are.”

As the company grew, Smith faced a common challenge for small businesses: maintaining quality, reliability and authenticity of products while scaling—and having the resources to do so. The next move was not simply about expansion; it was about building the infrastructure to last.

That is where ICA Fund—a Bay Area impact investor, small business support organization and long-time partner to Courtsmith—came in. ICA’s relationship with Smith began in 2017 through its Growth Strategies advising program, and over time, the organization paired mentorship, technical assistance and capital to help the company grow with intention. More recently, philanthropic support from JPMorganChase helped ICA expand the range of capital products it can offer entrepreneurs like Smith, including options designed for companies that are ready to scale but may not be a fit for traditional debt products or equity investments.

“Too many great businesses stay stuck small without access to fair and flexible capital— ICA Fund’s role is to change that,” said Allison Kelly, CEO of ICA Fund. “With support from JPMorganChase, we’re able to provide founder-friendly financing alongside long-term partnership, giving entrepreneurs the tools they need to grow stronger businesses that create opportunity in their communities.”

The right kind of capital for a new stage of growth

ICA recently provided Courtsmith with a loan to help it buy a local manufacturing business, a major step toward bringing more of its production process closer to home, strengthening its supply chain, reducing costs, continuing its growth and creating local jobs.

The transaction also marked a milestone for ICA: the first time the organization approved capital for a merger-and-acquisition transaction. It reflects a broader expansion of the financing options it offers, supported by JPMorganChase’s American Dream Initiative, which aims, in part, to help power 10 million small businesses—up from seven million today—over the next several years with the capital, coaching, tools and practical policy support they need to thrive. It’s also an example of the kind of tailored support—delivered through trusted local pathways and the firm’s own relationships—that JPMorganChase provides to small businesses in the Bay Area, including our more than 295,000 small business clients.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and Courtsmith’s story shows how access to the right capital at the right time can unlock growth,” said Gwyneth Galbraith, Vice President for Global Philanthropy at JPMorganChase. “By supporting organizations like ICA Fund, we’re helping expand access to the kinds of financing and guidance entrepreneurs need to strengthen operations, create jobs and build lasting businesses across the Bay Area.”

Building with staying power

For small businesses, access to financing that fits their stage of growth can determine whether expansion is sustainable. A one-size-fits-all approach does not always work for companies with distinct cash-flow cycles, customer demand and operational needs. In Courtsmith’s case, the ICA loan gave the company a path to invest in its future while preserving the founder’s vision and control—and reflected the kind of flexible financing JPMorganChase is helping expand through its support of local community and mission-driven lenders.

Courtsmith’s trajectory reflects that momentum. The company reports that revenue grew 259% from 2021 to 2025, while its workforce expanded from four employees in 2017 to 13 in 2025, including growth in full-time roles from one to 11.

Behind those numbers is a company deepening its roots in Oakland through local partnerships, community presence and a model built to last.

“Courtsmith is about Oakland, representing the culture that raised us and creating opportunity for the next generation,” said Smith. “With ICA Fund and JPMorganChase in our corner, we can keep turning that mission into something people can see and feel in our community.”

Courtsmith’s next chapter is still being written, but the path is clearer: a founder-led brand with deeper local production capacity, a stronger supply chain, and a larger role in Oakland’s small business economy.