2095 Jerrold Ave Ste 100, SF, CA 94124
415-259-6700
Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates (BVHPCA) began in 1994 as a grassroots organization, founded, governed, and operated by members of the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhood in San Francisco.
“Cooperative economics is a pathway to local food sovereignty. The research and development of our community-owned grocery cooperative is designed to work in concert with our alliances with non-profit and for-profit food distributors, potential partners in the South and North Bay, and retail small-grocery associations and food vendors in the region to create a stronger supply chain—extending from Black and Brown farms in central California to food-insecure households throughout the Bay Area that deserve access to farm- to-table food quality. This sustainable supply chain can help cure food insecurity for many years to come.
– Tony Kelly, Development Director, BVHCPA
Building Power and Stability through a Neighborhood Co-Op
Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates (BVHPCA) received a 3-year SDDT Healthy Community grant in 2019 to address the historic and structural inequities that BVHP residents have inherited from decades of racist environmental, economic, and social policies. The SDDT grant was dedicated to creating a much needed grocery co-operative in this southeast neighborhood of San Francisco.
Structural change typically takes years and is often incremental. This project was no exception, and surprisingly, both benefited from and was delayed because of the pandemic. BVHPCA had established the Southeast Community Council (SECC) in early 2020 when the pandemic began. The SECC served to build community leadership and created an opportunity to effectively identify and meet emerging community needs, especially those hardest hit by this crisis including access to food and personal protective equipment (PPE), and BVHPCA was poised to help. SDDT provided additional funds to address pandemic-related needs, and BVHPCA was able to quickly establish the Bayview Bounty Bags free food and PPE program.
As BVHPCA Development Director, Tony Kelly explained, the Bounty Bags program was able to “leverage BVHPCA’s deep community connections and expertise. Six months later, we had extensive experience in space management, produce buying, and food box preparation, and a network of vendors, suppliers, and national allies—including the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market—our new landlord—informing our plans for a neighborhood-owned cooperative grocery.”
The Bounty Bags program not only provided weekly access to healthy food to low-income diverse community members throughout the southeast neighborhoods of San Francisco, but it also created work experience and income-earning opportunities for local community members. BVPHCA obtained a Community Hub grant by OEWD in late 2021, and is discussing additional food security and neighborhood outreach partnership opportunities with OEWD, SFDPH and SF HSH. Further indicating broad recognition of the many successes of the Bounty Bags program, BVHPCA recently signed a 4-year lease with the Produce Market, secured a MOU with Mandela Partners for the co-op box supply, and has received additional foundation support to launch a co-op box program along with the produce market, further expanding the network between farms run and owned by Black and Brown farmers and underserved customers and constituencies. The co-op is now in sight and—despite the hardships experienced by so many during the pandemic—brings the hope of fulfilling a long-time community vision.
BVHPCA were recipients of the SDDT Healthy Communities Grant from 2019 – 2023.