BIZ Stoop is an Oakland based education consulting and lifestyle curation and youth development social enterprise. Desiree and I found our intersection while serving community and have since, enhanced the possibilities of how we can combine forces to engage youth in reaching their highest potential.
In reflection I have extreme gratitude for my connection with Desiree, when she is not in service to others she is leading her own company Damn Good Teas which allows her to maintain a connection to health and wellness within our community by offering organic , all natural teas.
BIZ Stoop and Damn Good Teas are both babies of Desiree which have allowed for her to connect to California Youth Resources to put money in the hands of people in the community who are doing the work. I have been a grant recipient of these funds before and they have been helpful and heartfelt.
Recently through a organizational collaboration between Urban Strategies and BIZ stoop, blessings bags were created to provide access to small business's products and services for 300 members of the unhoused and transitional housing community. I was elated when I got word that our Think Moringa powder was one of the products considered for the blessings bags. For sometime it has been on my heart to figure out what would be the best approach to engaging and offering relief to this part of our community. I thought about the Robin Hood approach, ya know, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor but, the risk was to vast and the reward was slim when considering long lasting structural change. With the blessing bags we are able to fulfill our goal to support some of our communities most vulnerable members through our business and our labor.
The rewards of our collaboration have been vast and I look forward to the day where the combination of Moringa leaf and lavender tea will be on the menu for Damn Good Teas. Until then we will continue to teach an build with our youth, inspire our generation of change makers and care for our elders with indigenous plant medicines. The path is not a easy one but no on ever said it would be.
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