Rogers and Rosewater

Over the last 3 years, Rogers and Rosewater have given over 32,500 meals to hungry folks living in the streets of Oakland. 

Rogers and Rosewater is a West Oakland-based volunteer organization that gives free meals to Oakland’s unhoused communities every Wednesday evening. 

Bopha Ul started by giving out 30 hot soups to the local encampment down the street from her home. In her own words, Bopha said she realized that “it's not too expensive to be helping others.” Her outreach grew over time and in December 2018, Bopha founded Rogers and Rosewater when she noticed that other organizations were only giving meals on the weekends. “I noticed a lull in the middle of the week, so we decided to do Wednesday's,” said Bopha. Now, Bopha and volunteers give out around 1000 meals per month.

Partnering with other mutual aid organizations like Punks with Lunch and Love Bite Bakers, Rogers and Rosewater supply more than a dozen unhoused communities with meals weekly. R&R is driven by dedicated volunteers who buy groceries, prep and bag the ready-to-eat meals, and deliver them all over North and West Oakland. Every meal is the same: a sandwich, homemade cookie, fruit, a snack bar, and a beverage. When there are enough volunteers, proper hygiene kits are included too. But like clockwork every Wednesday, over 250 meals are made and spread throughout the community. 

Rogers and Rosewater got its namesake from the classic TV show, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,  and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, a novel by American author Kurt Vonnegut. In both the TV show and novel, kindness, generosity, and a sense of community are the essential ingredients for happiness. Those virtues were not short in supply at headquarters. Rogers and Rosewater is funded primarily by Bopha herself with the support of her volunteers. As one of their Instagram captions says, “We run on kindness, credit cards, and lots of heart.” 

For Bopha and her volunteers, the only motivation to help give back to others is kindness. For the drivers, who follow the same routes and deliver the same meals to the same communities, a natural relationship forms. “You know the routes, you meet these people and know their needs. If they have pets, who lives where, who lives in that RV, or if they have allergies,” said Bopha. 

I saw this firsthand while riding along the delivery route and helping deliver meals. At every stop along the delivery route, people recognized the car and its driver. Word of mouth spread quickly and soon dozens of people were coming to say hello to a friend. With each meal handed out, nearly everyone replied the same, “Thank you so much. God bless you for everything you do.”

For volunteers of Rogers and Rosewater, it's all about giving back to the communities in need. Fueled by dedication and donations, Rogers and Rosewater exist so that the houseless in need don’t have to sleep hungry. To get involved with volunteering efforts, contact Rogers and Rosewater on Instagram or donate to their ongoing GoFundMe campaign to support their continued outreach. 

The Oldest Black Bookstore in the Country

By: Olivia Cruz Mayeda

There’s a photo of Muhammad Ali by the checkout counter of Marcus Books in North Oakland. In the photo, Ali beams at the camera, his head high. 

“That photo was taken right there in that corner,” Blanche Richardson said, pointing to the kids section by the front window of the store. “People lined up all the way down and around the block to Telegraph to see him.”

Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X are just some of the many legendary Black activists and authors to pass through the doors of the Marcus Books, which is named after political activist and writer Marcus Garvey.

A storied, historical gemstone with deep roots in the Bay Area, Marcus Books is the oldest surviving independent Black bookstore company in the nation. Like its original location in San Francisco, the store in Oakland specializes in texts written about Black people and by Black authors.

When Muhammad Ali visited Marcus Books in 1999, he stayed two extra hours longer than he originally planned just to accommodate all the folks who wanted to meet him. He entertained requests from visitors to hug him or even try their hand at punching the three-time world heavyweight champion.

Richardson, the daughter of original owners Dr. Raye Richardson and Dr. Julian Richardson, now helps run the store and sits behind the checkout counter. The photo of Ali is pinned up behind her left shoulder. 

After her parents met at Tuskegee University, Richardson’s father started Success Printing in San Francisco. Years later in 1960, her parents opened the first Marcus Books in the Fillmore District. Redevelopment, which saw the forced eviction of many Black families and businesses, compelled Marcus Books to move locations several times. In 2014, continued gentrification forced the closure of its San Francisco location.

The remaining Marcus Books in North Oakland holds an important history within itself and the community it serves.

“The store provides a repository of information and knowledge about the history, culture, challenges and achievements of Black people,” Richardson said. “We have hosted hundreds of school field trips over the years and it is a joy to see children recognize themselves and their history in a positive way.”

In June, Marcus Books celebrated Black fathers on Father’s Day. The store documented patrons and their children embracing one another and presenting their new books, which has been compiled into a video on their website. In one frame, a father and his kids proudly present their copies of Carole Boston Weatherford’s The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for Young People.

“Our love of Black people” is what lies at the heart of Marcus Books, she said.

The bookstore weathers a tough market as customers increasingly buy their books on larger online stores. Richard urges us to consider a future without independent bookstores.

Immigrant Day Laborers in Fruitvale

This community-based organization helps newly arrived immigrant laborers in Fruitvale find consistent jobs, build a client network, and seek free medical consultations without insurance. 

Street Level Health is a Fruitvale-based community organization whose mission is to improve the wellbeing of underinsured, uninsured, and recently arrived immigrants in Alameda County. Facing barriers in language, housing security, job security, medical attention and more, day laborers need all the help they can get. 

“The organization was created to support the day laborer community and their families,” said Flavio Martinez, a SLH community organizer. “So we are here to be the source of information to be that supporter for them. So just reminding the newly arrived people that SLH was created for them, and it was created to support them is really important.”

Kathy Ahoy co-founded Street Level Health in 2000 to serve the day laborer communities in Fruitvale. As a community health nurse, she went into the community to find out what’s working and what wasn’t. “Many new immigrants find the system isn't working for them,” said Kathy, who still volunteers with SLH administering flu vaccines once a week. 

SLH’s Health Access Program meets the needs of day laborers by meeting them where they are, literally. Every week, the Health Access team administers flu shots or COVID-19 vaccines and provides free medical consultations and medical referrals.

Damien Rosa Hernandez has been a day laborer for 15 years, mostly as a painter. He said Street Level Health helped him with medical consultations and the necessary referrals for his vision and dental operations. 

Beyond equitable health access, Martinez helps inform day laborers with training workshops and training to stay vigilant of wage theft from shady employers.  

“Every week, there are more wage theft cases and they’re constantly taken advantage of,” said Flavio. “More than anything, people come looking for cheap labor so we remind them about their rights and safety precautions. We tell them to take down the employer name, phone number, address, and license plate.”

Flavio’s father and uncle were immigrant day laborers and ever since high school, he’s known he’s wanted to become a community organizer. “I’m here to do my part now. I know what they went through with wage theft.” 

Victor Reyes moved to Oakland from Jalisco, Mexico, in 1984 and has been a day laborer for the last 20 years. He was a victim of wage theft when he was contracted for a job but never supplied with tax forms to collect his wages. Now 60 years old, he says sometimes he can only work once a month.

To support Street Level Health and the day laborer community in Fruitvale, visit the Street Level Health website, donate to their ongoing organizing efforts, volunteer with the community, and hire a worker through the Oakland Workers Collective.