Keisha Daniels has spent years showing up for Watts, a neighborhood in South Los Angeles. She has fed families, supported youth, and helped neighbors find housing. Now she has renovated and reopened Watts Up Mini Market, a neighborhood grocery store built with community support that meets community needs.
Keisha is known for co-founding the Sisters of Watts, a community-driven nonprofit serving local families. The organization runs free food giveaways, back-to-school drives, and youth sports programs. When families face housing crises or need to navigate social services, the Sisters of Watts show up. It is personal, grassroots work.
Living and working in Watts, Keisha saw firsthand one of the neighborhood’s most persistent challenges: food access. The nearest supermarket is miles away, leaving many families — especially those without cars — without reliable access to healthy staples like bread and milk.
At Watts Up Mini Market, SNAP and EBT are accepted and families can buy affordable, healthy food close to home. “I am here today to talk about my vision for Watts,” she said at the opening celebration, “and how my village and community helped me build it.”
But vision alone doesn’t renovate a building or secure a lease. “It’s not easy, it’s not cheap, and it’s not something you can do alone,” Keisha said of the process of opening a business. She needed capital, coaching, and the right partners to make it real.
That’s where California’s SCALE program came in. Administered by the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) and managed by CAMEO Network, SCALE connects entrepreneurs like Keisha with community lenders who understand small businesses in under-resourced communities. Through the program, she received support from Macedonia Community Development Corporation (CDC).
Macedonia CDC was a true partner, not just a lender. The organization provided hands-on coaching and the capital Keisha needed to complete renovations and purchase new equipment. Without that combination of financial support and guidance, Watts Up Mini Market might never have reopened its doors.
Keisha expressed deep gratitude for the public investment behind it all, thanking the state of California, CalOSBA, and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. She has also honored Congresswoman Maxine Waters, calling her “a tireless champion for California’s small businesses and the neighborhood of Watts.”
The reopening of Watts Up Mini Market is a testament to what’s possible when a community invests in its own. Keisha had the vision. Her village — neighbors, nonprofit partners, community lenders, and public officials — helped her build it. In Watts, that is exactly how change happens.