“That was my first idea, just to be able to have a place where the community can come together. That excited me the most, more than just providing food.”

We provide halal and vegan food to Oakland. It was always a dream of mine to have a restaurant, but I didn't think I would be in there working as much as I am now. It was more of a community that I was interested in. That was my first idea, just to be able to have a place where the community can come together and it's more about the connections that will be nurtured in the space. That excited me the most, more than just providing food.

My favorite part and the hardest part is the people. Interacting and meeting people and still having a place where people can come together. I also enjoy the trust that I'm gaining from the community. If you provide people with good service, after a while they begin to trust you for these things. And we want to use that as a platform to start getting into other social justice campaigns.

My proudest moment as a restaurant owner was seeing the response from the community. I know a lot of businesses are failing right now, but people are still coming out to my restaurant. It's busy and they’re telling me that they want to support us.

There's a lot of deeper and bigger issues that we have to remedy but we can't. We have to address some basics first. So food, clothing and shelter should be self sustainable inside of our communities. I'm attempting to build on those basics and move forward from there. I'm just starting on the ground and trying to do what we need.

It's been healing for me as well to be in service, even though I said I wasn't expecting to be in it as much. That's something that I wasn't looking for or expecting but it has a lot of benefits. I appreciate every day there. It's hard sometimes, but I have energy, so I'm just going to stay consistent and try to keep building this.