Who We Are
OFPC is a council first, created and dedicated to the community to problem solve, act and celebrate. We analyze and report on the Oakland food system from production through consumption and waste management. Perhaps most importantly, we bring together underserved community members, food sector professionals, elected officials and city staff to develop food policy. Our work has always been rooted in community through workshops, listening sessions, and community surveys to ensure our priorities are aligned with what the community needs and wants. From the start we have allied with agencies such as HOPE Collaborative, People’s Grocery, and People United for a Better Life In Oakland (PUEBLO).
Council
Neil Thapar
Neil is a staff attorney at the Oakland-based nonprofit Sustainable Economies Law Center, where he focuses on legal research, education, advice, and advocacy to build the legal infrastructure for a local and resilient food economy. He also maintains a small private practice advising small food businesses and farms. Prior to joining SELC, Neil apprenticed on a teaching farm at UC Santa Cruz where he also researched and authored several case studies on social justice in agriculture. Neil is an active community gardener and amateur seed saver. As an OFPC member, Neil offers his skills and experience in service to the Council’s mission to establish an equitable and resilient local food system in Oakland.
Sapna Thottathil
Sapna E. Thottathil, PhD is the author of India’s Organic Farming Revolution: What it Means for our Global Food System. Currently, she is a Senior Associate of Supply Chain Programming at School Food FOCUS, a national collaborative that leverages the procurement power of large school districts to make school meals nationwide more healthful, regionally sourced, and sustainably produced. Sapna earned her BA from the University of Chicago, where she was awarded the Udall Scholarship for environmental leadership, before going on to receive an MSc from Oxford University and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, where she was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship. In her spare time, Sapna enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking, and identifying wildflowers and birds.
Reyna Yagi
Reyna is the new Program Associate & Executive Assistant at Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project. She grew up in the Easy Bay, but wandered upstream toward rural mountain communities in California and Colorado, working directly with the public, community groups and businesses on water quality and conservation issues. Much of her training and experience is in sustainable landscaping with an emphasis on water management and a certification as a Landscape Irrigation Auditor. After becoming involved with the urban farming scene in Colorado, she transitioned her focus to edible landscapes and obtained her Masters in Food Security in the UK. There she visited and interviewed 40 urban farm sites across England for her research project on urban ag and water use. Having recently returned to the Bay Area, Reyna hopes to meld her past experiences to promote urban ag and good food policy in Oakland.
Donors
