Entertainment
Locol, Home of Revolutionary Fast Food
Oaklanders have welcomed a new restaurant, Locol – Revolutionary Fast Food, located at 2214 Broadway near Grand Avenue.
Now In its second month, the restaurant offers healthy fast and affordable entrees for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The restaurant was listed last month at one of Food and Wine’s 2016 Restaurants of the Year.
Step into Locol, and guests are greeted by hip hop music, an energetic staff and a wall covered with a larger-than-life, black and white photo featuring an African American bicyclist.
Locol’s menu features green smoothies, BBQ turkey burgers, collard greens, ice cream sundaes, corn bread and more. The brain child of Roi Choy and Daniel Patterson, Locol was just an idea a year ago, and now the duo boasts two sites within six months, one in Watts in Los Angeles and the other in Oakland.
Choi recruited his friend Dan “Bam” Deocampo to run the two locations as the community liaison and regional manager.
“Offering the community whole, delicious and affordable foods has been our goal and also employing locals – to date about 30 employees,” said Deocampo.
“At our first Bay Area location in Oakland, we have hired locals of east and west Oakland with a focus in three areas; students and youth, low wage fast food workers who have been union busted out of work and the previously incarcerated, re-entry folks,” said Deocampo.
Locol has plans to open a location in West Oakland at 35th and Market this year, which will feature a café-style setting serving coffee and pastries. Another spot in East Oakland on East 14th Street is on the horizon.
Deocampo says the company’s ultimate goal is to tackle areas in East and West Oakland that are considered, “food deserts,” where communities are without grocery stores or fresh affordable foods.
“In our communities, we typically feed ourselves pre-packaged food, fast and affordable, and we don’t want to change that model, we just want to change what’s inside that model,” he said.
Growing up Watts in a working class family where his mother juggled three jobs Deocampo says he can relate to the modern lifestyle of fast foods. “My mother never had time to cook and understandably so, but instead of changing the culture of how we eat, we take the culture in which we eat and change the ingredients to green based, organic and farm raised meats.”
Deocampo, an Oakland resident for six years, considers himself an artist and community organizer who promotes change in the midst of gentrification, homelessness and joblessness. “Society tells us that you can’t raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, that prices can’t be affordable and food can’t be accessible,” he said. “Well, we are proving this theory is not true. We pay way above the current minimum wage, and our price points are very low.”
Deocampo says menu items in Oakland are all under $7 and $6 in Watts. “Our model empowers the community, and we plan to expand very quickly to Detroit, Atlanta, Ferguson, MO and Newark, New Jersey.”
For information visit www.WeLocol.com
Activism
Richmond Seniors Still Having a Ball After 25 Years
The Senior Winter Ball is a symbol of the Commission on Aging’s broader mission of providing enriching life experiences to the local senior community, particularly those in need of them. “Besides the social activities, we focus on issues such as housing, transportation and health,” said Michelle Hayes, the commission’s chairperson. “We get things done for our senior population.”
By Mike Kinney
The Richmond Standard
For a quarter century, seniors in the local community have had a prime location in the heart of the city to gather and celebrate the holidays.
That is courtesy of the annual Senior Winter Ball, which will mark a milestone this year when it takes place for the 25th time. The gala will run from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Richmond Memorial Auditorium.
The holiday tradition was started by the City of Richmond’s Commission on Aging in 1999 to entertain and celebrate seniors. The event also raises funds for local senior causes. Attendees wear their finest attire and enjoy dinner and dancing.
“It’s so exciting to see all of the gala attendees all dressed up and seeing their lifetime friends and making new friends as well,” said Bryan M. Harris, secretary for the Commission on Aging. “They will reminisce about old Winter Ball memories and at the same time create new ones.”
Richmond’s very own Chef Josephine Orozco of El Sol Catering will serve at this year’s anniversary dinner. The gala will also feature the band Top Shelf Classics, which plays hits from the 50s through the 80s and has been the gala’s annual performer for the last decade.
The Senior Winter Ball symbolizes the Commission on Aging’s broader mission of providing enriching life experiences to the local senior community, particularly those in need of them.
“Besides the social activities, we focus on issues such as housing, transportation and health,” said Michelle Hayes, the commission’s chairperson. “We get things done for our senior population.”
Myrtle Braxton, 97, has served on the commission for 17 years and is its current vice president. She says her goal is to increase the quality of life for seniors through safe social events.
“So many seniors are isolated and are sometimes forgotten by society,” Braxton said. “So, our commission is their advocate and makes sure they are not left behind.”
Tickets to the 25th Silver Anniversary Annual Senior Winter Ball are $45 per person or $360 for a table of eight. They are available in person via the Main Recreation office at 3230 Macdonald Ave., via email at csdregistration@ci.richmond.ca.us or by phone at 510-620-6793.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of November 20 – 26, 2024
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Activism
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To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
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