PULL UP A CHAIR
solfood is a community-driven model for activating underused spaces through food, programming, and partnership. We create places where people can gather, share meals, access resources, and build relationships rooted in culture and community.
3461 at the California Hotel is the first place this work is taking shape.
What this is?
Oakland has always had the spirit — the organizers, the elders, the artists, the people who show up for each other. What's currently missing are reliable places to hold it.
solfood is stewarding a new community space and outdoor garden at the California Hotel. A place where organizers can organize, elders can teach, families can eat, and solfood is stewarding community spaces, where neighbors can just be neighbors.
Food is the medium.
Community is the point.
Rooted at the California Hotel in West Oakland, in partnership with EBALDC. In service of Oakland.
What happens here?
Gather
Community meals, cultural events, and celebrations that bring people together across generations.
Learn
Workshops rooted in food, gardening, wellness, and the knowledge our community already holds.
Build
Space for local organizations to convene, strategize, and do the work.
Who this is for?
Long-time residents. Elders. Young people. Community organizations doing the work. Anyone who has ever felt like the city's spaces are not made for them.
This one is.
Food as more than food
Food is how we remember where we came from. It's how culture travels from one generation to the next. It's how strangers become neighbors.
That's why food is our medium — the thing that gets people in the room, sitting together, talking.