After 40 years without a full-scale grocery store, neighborhoods in West Oakland will welcome Community Foods Market

For more than 40 years, the McClymonds, Hoover-Foster and Clawson neighborhoods in West Oakland haven’t had a full-service supermarket. That’s about to change. Community Foods Market, formerly known as People’s Community Market, broke ground on April 16, at 3105 San Pablo Ave. (at 32nd Street).

The project was spearheaded by Brahm Ahmadi, who co-founded People’s Grocery in 2002, a community food project that hoped to create a brick-and-mortar grocery store in the underserved community.

West Oakland is a food desert, with residents spending around 70% of their grocery dollars annually — an estimated $42 million — outside the neighborhood, according to Ahmadi.