Andrew S. Ross Sunday, March 28, 2010
We’re excited at Oakland Grown to have been highlighted along with Buy Local Berkeley, San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance, Hometown Peninsula Independent Business Alliance, SFMade and the East Bay Express in this SF Gate article. Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance, recently brought together an amazing group of folks to discuss how to strengthen the collective power of our groups in the Northern California region. I’m looking forward to participating in future gatherings. Read more about the who, what and why below.
~tina tamale
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“Everyone there learned a lot from each other,” said Erin Kilmer-Neel, a board member of the Oakland Merchants Leadership Forum, which runs the recently begun Oakland Grown drive. “To find out how others structure their campaigns and solve certain problems was really helpful.”
How real?: The movement has a lot of believers. The independent business alliance, founded in 2001, has 65 affiliates and is working with dozens of other shop-local groups and, more recently, with independent trade organizations. “I think we’re seeing this escalate rapidly,” said the group’s director, Jennifer Rockne.
read more here