Uhuru Foods & Pies volunteers and supporters did amazing work in 2017 in northern California during the holiday season!
The annual Uhuru Pies holiday sale supports all the programs of Black Star Industries.
This is a campaign for reparations supporting African self-determination from white and
other communities and economic self-reliance in the African community.
This year’s holiday pie sale took place in the context of the development of the Black Power Blueprint campaign.
Black Star Industries and the African People’s Education and Defense Fund are building community empowerment in St. Louis, Missouri. The conditions of life for African people everywhere are positively impacted by these programs.
Our pie buyers and supporters were really excited to support Black Power Blueprint.
They built a vibrant, prosperous and connected community that will push back the gentrification that displaces and disperses our African communities.
Supporters in Oakland understand the importance of pushing back the gentrifying attack on our community by building our own!
We also did a successful annual Uhuru Pies sale in St. Petersburg, Florida from Akwaaba Hall and Uhuru Jiko Kitchen.
This page features some of our best Uhuru Pies 2017 victories! In 2018, Uhuru Foods & Pies will be putting all of our efforts into scaling by two, three, and four times in northern California!
Contact us at 800-578-5157 or oakland.volunteer@uhurufoods to join, volunteer or support.
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Uhuru Foods & Pies was featured at the AfroTech Conference in San Francsico. Bakari, Zewdi, Chike, Sealli, Anaya and Khalia staffed and did outreach, passing out postcards in the rain one day!!!
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Renee Nassar came to Oakland from the Office of APSC Chairwoman Penny Hess in Florida to be a key Uhuru Pies volunteer during the week before Thanksgiving! Paul Kessler, once again staffed extraordinarily successful pop-ups at Shoppers Corner for three days in Santa Cruz, CA. Much thanks also to the staff at Uhuru Furniture, including Stephanie Midler, Jeanine Griswa, Mark and more, who sold pies to their staff, buyers, donors and hosted the Buy Black Weekend Uhuru Pies pop-up.
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Pete Yaroschuk, Operations Coordinator, secured large donations of ingredients from regional businesses: Doreva Produce and Berti Produce (yams), Clover (dairy), NuCal (eggs). Joel Hambuger and Joe Montgomery ran many important errands, moving hundreds of pounds of ingredients and mixes. Tim Anderson, a supporter of the Uhuru Movement, arranged a donation of 950 pounds of delicious organic HoneyCrisp apples!
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The production team, with many volunteers, mixed and baked 2,300 pies!! The team includes: Patrick Enea, Siobhan Boylan, Todd Hudson and Nelson Harrison and Maureen Wagener. Key to this year’s success in the kitchen, Colleen Orlando, a bread and pastry chef from FireBrand Bakery, volunteered on this team! She has a true zen with the ovens… and the volunteers, too!
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Cara Locke staffed hundreds of volunteers and trained our pop-up staffers! Wendy Snyder posted opportunities on VolunteerMatch. Volunteer groups included One Brick, Oakland High BuildOn, Fremont High BuildOn, Skyline Leadership, Springstone School in Lafayette, Alameda Key Club, students from Oakland Tech and so many more.
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Individuals sold hundreds of pies to friends, family and supporters. David “Redbeard” Reardon was the top seller once again, selling 77 pies to friends, family and supporters in November alone and winning more sales at a San Francisco private elementary school. Other top sellers included Bakari Olatunji, Paul Kessler, Joel Hamburger, Maureen Wagener, Siobhan Boylan and the Uhuru Furniture staff.
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Sealli Moyenda organized the pop-ups and built many community relationships!! All the managers at the businesses in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Cruz who hosted Uhuru Pies pop-ups were so supportive! Rainbow Grocery and Mandela Co-op carried Uhuru Pies in their stores. Uhuru Pies were also ordered by staff at local businesses, including Clif Bar.
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Francesca Alessio interviewed Cara Locke and Sealli Moyenda about Black Power BluePrint and Uhuru Pies on KPOO radio! Then, she won a place at the “After Dark: Eating Well” event for Uhuru Foods & Pies to host a “Pies for Reparations” tasting at the San Francisco Exploratorium.
