People’s Community Market In Oakland

In order to feed the people, you have to get them invested. That’s the motto of an organization that’s banking on its community to fund a startup grocery store in the grocery-starved neighborhood of West Oakland. Less than a month in, the project has already created quite a buzz around the Bay Area and raised more than $200,000 of its $1.2 million funding goal from a pool of small, local investors. And the momentum is growing. “It really seems to be taking off,” said Brahm Ahmadi, CEO of People’s Community Market, a for-profit entity that is an outgrowth of nonprofit group People’s Grocery, which he co-founded more than a decade ago.