Our Team
Melissa Acedera (she/her)
Melissa is the daughter of Filipino immigrants who set their roots in Los Angeles, California. She is a community organizer working at the intersection of food justice and houselessness issues.
Melissa founded Polo’s Pantry in 2018 as a response to food scarcity and injustices she saw while organizing in Skid Row and other areas in Los Angeles. In March of 2020, Melissa also co-founded Home-y Made Meals.
Melissa lost her father to complications from Type 2 diabetes almost two decades ago and recently her oldest brother to heart failure. Navigating these painful losses along with her own lived experiences of hunger and poverty has rooted her in community organizing. With Polo’s, Melissa is helping immigrant and poor communities heal through healthy food access and knowledge + power building. She is passionate about advocating for solution building led by people with lived experiences.
Melissa is an active member of the California Hunger Action Coalition, Services Not Sweeps Coalition, a proud madrina and community partner of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas and Lideres Campesinas. She is also currently part of UCLA's 2023 Activist-In-Residence Cohort and is a 2023 fellow of the Castanea Fellowship.
Nina Angelo (she/her)
Nina grew up in Atwater Village and studied Justice and Sustainability at UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, focusing specifically on food systems, justice and movement building. In the Bay, Nina was able to embody revolutionary food futures and brought a radical food lens, gained through immersion into the Bay’s legacy of food justice, back down to LA.
As the Atwater Village Farmers’ Market manager from 2020-2022, Nina gained a deep understanding of the importance of local farmers and vendors to our nourished survival. The food traditions of her home city are defined by street vendors, mom & pop shops and local cooks. Nina was part of Los Angeles Food Policy Council’s Food Leaders Lab in 2022 and was their Food Justice Fellow in 2022/23. Through these opportunities, Nina has developed a systems view of food access.
Nina holds a deep love and appreciation for food, cooking and all their intersections. She explores spirituality and creativity through this world. She sees cooking as a means of honoring our food and the labor that goes into producing it. Through Polo’s, Nina is working to honor the people who keep us fed and keep LA culture alive.