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EP43: Eli Moraru - Rebuilding Food Access From The Ground Up
55 Plays20 days ago
“Let’s stop doing the research and let’s actually execute on it and build something.”
Food systems fail when they deliver calories without dignity, convenience, or nutrition. Real access means healthy food that fits people’s daily lives, budgets, culture, and time constraints. When communities lack nearby fresh options, preventable disease rises while local farmers struggle. Regenerative solutions work best when health care, agriculture, retail, and community trust are designed to support one another instead of operating in silos.
Eli Moraru explains how those failures became the foundation for a new model in Philadelphia. After seeing families offered raw food boxes that were hard to use, he began building a neighborhood grocer where SNAP users can access healthy ingredients and legally exchange them for hot ready meals. Eli shares how financing barriers, policy gaps, and outdated assumptions were overcome by combining workforce training, health partnerships, and direct purchasing from regenerative farms.
Eli is the Co-Founder and President of The Community Grocer, a nonprofit building neighborhood-based food systems that connect regenerative farmers, healthcare, and local access. An award-winning social entrepreneur focused on food justice and community-led change, Eli was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree and received the Penn President’s Sustainability Prize for his work redesigning how healthy food reaches underserved communities.
https://www.thecommunitygrocer.org/
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Transcript
Introduction to Food as Medicine and Nutrition Insecurity
00:00:00
Speaker
I understood at a very young age that food is medicine, that food is health. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we have over a fifth of Philadelphians who are nutrition insecure. We're wasting 40% of food in this country.
00:00:12
Speaker
We're in Pennsylvania, which is one of the largest farm states, and there is not a single piece of farm fresh produce in this community. If we focus on local resiliency, creating communities that can sustain, that can feed and help each other,
00:00:24
Speaker
then we're going live in a lot better world and country if we just take care of each other. And that just takes intention. Hello and welcome to the Regenerative Design Podcast. I'm your host, Mathieu Mehuys. And in this show, I interview the leading authorities in the world of regenerative practices.
00:00:42
Speaker
People who do good and do well. Are you a person that cares about your environment and our planet, that wants to leave the planet to our children to be something that we can be truly proud of, to enjoy for many generations to come?
00:00:55
Speaker
But are you also a person that believes we can do all of this and do good in business? have really good news for you. You're here listening to the podcast that is all about making our planet a better place and making your business more successful.
00:01:10
Speaker
Enjoy the show.
Introducing Eli Moraru and Community Grocer's Mission
00:01:11
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Regenerative Design Podcast with your host Mathieu. And today we have another great guest. His name is Eli Moraru. He's the co-founder of the Community Grocer.
00:01:23
Speaker
And I'm really excited to talk about how he has founded this company and he's been recently awarded with the Forbes 30 Under 30 for social impact. That's very cool. So welcome to the show. How are you doing today?
00:01:37
Speaker
I'm doing well. Super excited to be here today with you, to be on this podcast, to share our vision and just have a great conversation with amazing host. Nice. Thank you. So um it's very cool. We connected through your uncle, who's a dear friend of mine. But anyways, let's let's dive into like, where did all of this start? Like, is there If we go like way back in history, when you were a child, were you consider about farmers or did you care about your food as much or were you um working in a grocery shop or any of
Eli Moraru's Background and Early Insights into Food's Importance
00:02:09
Speaker
that? So yeah, tell me the backstory.
00:02:11
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, I grew up in Washington, D.C., born and raised, and you'll know, not necessarily the home of a lot of farmland, but is a place where i grew up with a lot of resources. I was very privileged. My mom always made sure we had a family dinner on the table with organic, healthy, fresh foods. And for me, that was such an important part of my life growing up. It was where we came together. was where we connected. i understood at a very young age that food is medicine, that food is health. and the importance of food in my life, but didn't really have a nuanced understanding of where that food was coming from, just that it was there.
00:02:45
Speaker
and That was a privilege I had growing up to always have good food, a family that was there to cook it and prepare it for me. But I always had a life of service. and It was actually funny. My mom was on a board of a nonprofit called DC Greens, who does amazing work working with farmers, increasing food access, doing a lot of food as medicine work in DC. At a young age, she brought me and allowed me to think through what a nonprofit is, to understand the work that they do, and also start thinking of our food system. But was it was not something at the core of who I was. It was just sort of a given.
00:03:19
Speaker
And i though, always kind of continued that service mindset. I studied political science at UPenn, where I thought I was going to into the world of politics and I'm glad I didn't. But instead was really continuing to look at systems on a higher level. And it wasn't agriculture or food or health at the forefront, but more just what makes communities stronger, what brings people together, looking at poverty, looking at broken policies, looking at redlining um and doing a lot
Pandemic Volunteering and Realization of Systemic Food Inadequacies
00:03:49
Speaker
of community service. And it was during the pandemic, which was my junior year of college. So not the most fun time, but was living off campus with 10 friends during the height of lockdown.
00:03:59
Speaker
And I was bored, understandably, and started to look for volunteer opportunities, something to get me out of the house. And it started with voter registration work, which is where, of course, my studying and school brought me to. But that turned into, in South Philly, the Tasker and Wilson homes, which is right alongside the country's oldest crude oil refinery. ah going there and volunteering and during the pandemic passing out those USDA farm to family food boxes.
00:04:27
Speaker
And it was these boxes we were given with us, our community you know volunteers, some nonprofits, and we were given no budget, but 800 boxes every single Monday on the street corner of 30th and more of excess ingredients from the government. And it was raw chicken, a sack of onions, a sack of potatoes. And the government said, here, we solved hunger. Go figure out what to do with it.
00:04:50
Speaker
And it was in those eight hours a day. And I was in the community after my first stint volunteering every single day. Had nowhere else to be Mr. Reeves and his wife who run the nonprofit. We're working with that becomes Pop Pop, a grandma that's family. and And got us thinking of food. And for a little context, you know Philadelphia is at the moment, the second poorest city in America, large city in America, used to be the number one at that time. And about a fifth of Philadelphians are food insecure. And again, this is not a reality I had. Food and agriculture was just kind of given to me at a young age. But here I am volunteering in South Philly every day, and we have a corner store on every single block selling chips and soda.
00:05:29
Speaker
But we don't have any persistent fresh nutrition access. So I'm there all day. And if I get hungry and I have the privilege to go home to my neighborhood that has a grocery store, but where I'm at every day, there isn't. So it's only chips and soda all day.
00:05:42
Speaker
And all that got me thinking of of food for the first time. So we're passing out these boxes and whether it was our seniors who couldn't lift them, Our youth, you know a nine year old, what are they going to do with a raw chicken?
00:05:53
Speaker
um Or even our working mothers who in theory could convert these ingredients into a meal. They still needed to go to the grocery store, which was two buses away. And the buses aren't even running during the pandemic to complete it, right? To get the olive oil, to get the salt, to get the pepper, to make it into a complete meal.
00:06:10
Speaker
So instead, it was eight hours a day of struggling to pass out these boxes, despite us knowing our neighbors are hungry during the pandemic.
Inspiration for Solutions to Food Deserts
00:06:19
Speaker
And it was in that reality of eight hours of conversation, of learning, of listening and being present that got me thinking of our food system for the first time. And it was trying to understand how in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, we have over a fifth of Philadelphians who are nutrition insecure. We're wasting 40% of food in this country that we're in Pennsylvania, which is one of the largest farm states.
00:06:42
Speaker
Yet here I am and there is not a single piece of farm fresh produce in this community. But instead we have chips and soda on every single corner. 4,000 corner stores selling chips and soda. And that got me thinking of food and not with a lot of nuance and not a lot of understanding. But by a research then began into understanding what is a food desert? What is food apartheid? um And that has yielded since then, which is at this point over six years ago,
00:07:09
Speaker
ah six years of building, learning, and understanding our food systems, our health systems, and trying to bring back persistent nutrition access. That includes working with farmers, with health systems, with workforce development providers. But all of that, my food journey started with the privilege I had growing up of delicious home-cooked meal on my table. And the understanding that for so many Americans, that that is not a reality. And that's largely due to systems of redlining. That's due to poverty and all the systems that went into place that have made it that farm fresh ingredients are not accessible to our neighbors. And now we are decades into a real crisis where our communities don't know where food comes from. and What we're trying to do is build that back and bring that back together as a nonprofit.
00:07:55
Speaker
Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, that's very cool. And I actually wrote my master thesis on food systems in South Africa and got to understand, like, the obviously the link between poverty or secluded areas that don't have access to to proper nutrition. And so our solution was to create more community gardens and and produce locally in those neighborhoods. But even there, you're you're very limited and you have to have ah people managing those those small farms, urban farms. So it was good. But I love your idea of like, OK, it's not really a problem of that we have enough or too little food. Like the farmers are producing, they they have amazing food. It's just it it doesn't get to the right people either fast enough or in the right shape or
00:08:42
Speaker
like you did.
Innovative Models for Utilizing SNAP Benefits
00:08:43
Speaker
so So, yeah, just tell me a bit more how you then got into de the idea of, okay, instead of trying to get those boxes to the people, we're actually going to cook the meals and get that to the people, if I'm understanding it correctly.
00:08:56
Speaker
You completely are. And it's everything you said, right? It's not because this country doesn't produce enough food or wasting 40% of it. If we were to reallocate about 7% of that food with intention, we could feed every American so there is no food insecurity, right?
00:09:11
Speaker
But it was in the understanding of as we're passing out these boxes that these boxes don't meet our neighbors in their routines. That food access isn't just about food. It's not just about nutrition, but it's about cultural relevance. It's about is it in a form right that I can eat? Like I said, a nine-year-old with a raw chicken, that's not a good solution for food insecurity. so You need to have the pathway towards preparation. You need to meet neighbors in the routine with convenience. And for us, that was the understanding of how is it that we have a corner store and on every corner in Philly selling chips and soda. And we have allowed as a country for the unit economics of that to make sense. But we can't finance and we can't have local persistent nutrition access. And like you said, in my first thought was it's all about access. Why don't we just build another 10,000 square foot grocery store in this community? And of course, I speak with researchers and folks like you who understand food system work, and that has failed repeatedly because that 10,000 square foot grocer that needs cars to arrive to that you only really can make it to twice a month, that doesn't work in the urban density that we have here in Philadelphia. It needs to be something within walking distance and within the infrastructure we have. And that was where we understood, okay, it's the corner store. We have so many of these corner properties that are vacant or being misused, but here is the infrastructure we have. How do we get food into that? And it was very simply chatting with our neighbors and as specifically our teenage volunteers as we're passing out those boxes.
00:10:40
Speaker
and our And our seniors are saying... And these were still like the the uncooked boxes, right? These are still the uncooked government boxes we're working with. And it was our seniors who said, look, if you're giving a hot meal right now, I would take that because I don't have to prepare it. It meets me in my routine, but you're not.
00:10:54
Speaker
And it was our teenagers who were showing up every morning to help us volunteer with Skittles and an Arizona tea for breakfast. using mom's snap card, or their supplemental nutrition assistance program. In the 60s, the war on poverty, one of the
Addressing Policy Challenges and Community Focus
00:11:07
Speaker
programs that was put into place was food stamps, as you as most people know it, but it's a supplemental nutrition assistance program. And that policy, which hasn't changed, you know the only changes have been really whether we cut it, add more money, decrease, but not a lot of nuance on what that means. And this system means anyone who is low income, underneath the poverty line, can get a food subsidy.
00:11:28
Speaker
And back in the 60s, our food system was actually a lot more localized. It made a lot more sense. And the rules were you can't use it for anything hot or prepared with the intention of on premise consumption. So what that means is you can't use your benefits at a restaurant, but you can use it at a grocery store.
00:11:43
Speaker
So when the policy was put in place, that made sense. They didn't want folks using the benefits to go you know pay for labor costs. They just want to be for a food to support farmers. And at the time it made sense. But over the last 60 years since the policies put in place, we've lost localized nutrition access. The local grocer doesn't exist anymore. and Because of that, and the way that the lobbyists have worked here, we've allowed somehow for Skittles and Frito-Lay and PepsiCo to make chips and soda eligible, but scrambled eggs are not.
00:12:17
Speaker
And so as we're standing there on the corner, it was our teenage volunteers who are coming out for the first time or joining us to volunteer with chips and soda using mom's Snapcard. And then we see the effects of that, of having a corner store that only sells chips and soda and that being eligible, but not scrambled eggs. We're seeing hypertension, we're seeing diabetes. And what we're seeing like more specifically is our teenagers cramping up throughout the day. because of just not having proper nutrition access. And very simply though, our teens, our moms, our our grandparents, as we're working with them say, look, this is not what i want to use my snap on. This is not how I want to access food.
00:12:55
Speaker
I wish I could use my benefits for a hot, healthy meal in my neighborhood, but I cannot. yeah And that's where I was like, what is going on? yeah you know how does this make sense?
00:13:06
Speaker
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00:13:26
Speaker
that's an amazing perspective i never even thought about it because it's it's so like from your personal experience for kind of being in the field because you would think like oh poverty is like yeah people can't even afford to buy healthy food because it's more expensive but if you then yeah i'd wonder and maybe you should do that to to show the world like what effect it has but just to look at like um let's say you spend your money or even the stamps on on the unhealthy food versus the healthy food like the amount of nutritional value you'll get out of it versus the cost i'm pretty sure that the healthy meals are gonna outperform it maybe even in general cost to have a full stomach um of any food it might even still be cheaper
00:14:13
Speaker
or more affordable. So yeah, just understanding that like oh poor people, it's not because that people are poor that they eat badly, it's because they don't have the access to eat healthy and probably even more so that, okay, imagine you're poor, you're trying to make ends meet, your father and mother are working maybe night shifts, difficult hours, all that stuff.
00:14:36
Speaker
They have kids who have to go to school, like super busy. And then you have to still cook it a healthy meal that you can't get the the ingredients from, or you have to drive super far and, and maybe you don't have a car whatever.
00:14:49
Speaker
um So now you bring that into the neighborhood. So people's, the the the good old convenience is like, okay, you can just get the, the healthy warm um warm meal that's brilliant yeah yeah there there are so many systems at play right why malnutrition and and food insecurity and specifically the term food apartheid exists in this country and one thing we know about snap it's actually one of the few government programs that works right every dollar spent is 1.54 back into the economy into the gdp it supports farmers it supports retailers And actually we saw during the pandemic when folks had more, we doubled up a snap during the pandemic, is that people made healthier choices because they had more money to do so.
00:15:33
Speaker
But of course, the larger issue here isn't that, it's about access and median access and routine. And we don't have that in this country, but we have somehow a corner store on every block. And so for us, it was our neighbors saying, I wish I could have a hot, healthy meal with my benefits, but I cannot. where me and my co-founder read the entire federal policy. This was pre-GBT, so we did have to read it, and read line by line ah the words food, intention, premises, and consumption. And we found a way for the first time ever in compliance with the policy to allow neighbors to walk with a hot meal using their benefits. And the way we did that very simply is we split the building in half. The front half is a unit a a grocer owned by us, the community grocer, a nonprofit selling an all day menu of ingredients and ingredients kits that unlike those boxes on the corner, it's everything pre-portioned and marinated for the individual size. So you don't need to go to the grocery store miles away to buy $60 worth of olive oil and other ingredients for one recipe. It is made for the one individual. But knowing that, like you said, you work three jobs or you're nine years old or your kitchen's not working, you need to have the pathway towards preparation. But you can't do that on premises, according to federal policy.
00:16:45
Speaker
We split the building in half and the back half is separately owned, separately operated. It's a workforce development training kitchen where young people and returning citizens are getting trained skills in culinary arts.
Operations and Nutrition Solutions for SNAP Recipients
00:16:56
Speaker
And the ingredients you just purchased, you trade for the equivalent hot and ready version, almost like Chipotle style, where they scoop it for you.
00:17:03
Speaker
And that way, you can use your benefits and walk away with a hot meal. And so that's what we're doing. How do you legally get folks meals that work in their routine within the existing policy? And that's what we've had to do and haven't built it for five years. Brilliant. Amazing.
00:17:20
Speaker
Most people would have said, oh, sorry, it's not possible. with the and And you guys are like, no, we'll find a way. So can you break it down again? Because I don't fully understand it, how it actually works. So you have the the normal, let's say, corner grocery store with with also fresh produce? Or is this still like... um so So our store, it's in the front half of the building. It's a it's an all-day menu. Think of like a HelloFresh grocery store. And you can use cash. You can use credit card.
00:17:48
Speaker
can also use Snap, though, right? This is the special part. You can use your Snap benefits. Yeah. and everything is is sold as the raw ingredient kits, and that makes it SNAP eligible. Then you leave the premises, you walk outside, and you literally have to walk outside. This is part of the federal policy. well Walk back into unit B, which is a separate door,
00:18:08
Speaker
And in that unit B is that workforce training kitchen with a trade-in window. So the ingredients you just purchased have been timestamped and sealed. And then you give it to the kitchen where one of the folks working there will take it.
00:18:21
Speaker
And they'll actually cook that for a future batch. So you'll get scooped someone else's batch from earlier, the equivalent version. So within, you know, hopefully a minute, you're walking out with a hot meal. You guys are brilliant.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah. How creative is that? Now I fully get it. Wow, that's insane. So cool, Nick. Go ahead. A little crazy that it's that you have to do all this ah logistic nightmares almost and packaging. It's probably kind of wasteful or could be optimized.
00:18:50
Speaker
But that's a good thing because now you can go to the government and say like, hey, we've we have something and we've proven it works. Let's change the policy now. um And that was the question we got maybe six years ago was was, why not go and change the federal policy? And of course, you you look at our current Congress and anytime, right? It's not so easy. So we said, look, our neighbors need persistent nutrition access now. no They need this today. So let's go and build it. But That was six years ago, and it's taken every single hurdle.
00:19:21
Speaker
i That was the first part. But the second piece that you were mentioning is it's about access and it's about building it. And how do you do that? And over the last 40 years, like I said, we haven't seen persistent farm fresh ingredients in low-income communities. And how is it that the economics...
00:19:39
Speaker
are not possible to make it pop that happen. So we started this, we won the Penn President Sustainability Prize for the idea i just explained to you. yeah how We eventually got approval from the USDA. And now all of a sudden we are we're raising capital, or're raising cash, and we're ready to buy a building and to actually bring this vision to life. And one of the key things we needed was a loan to make that happen.
Financial Strategy and Workforce Program Integration
00:20:02
Speaker
And as a startup nonprofit, ah most banks don't even look at us. But even those who have fresh food financing and our CDFIs, which are community development financial institutions. So banks with a mission, they get grants to take on a riskier capital like us. They go, look, we love this model. And like you said, this is so cool, kind of dumb you have to do it. We love that it's approved now by the federal government that it's fully compliant.
00:20:27
Speaker
But we haven't seen any low income community support farm fresh ingredients for the last 40 years. So this is not possible to finance. And they had really two questions for us. One, which was really valid, which was how are you ever going support a kitchen staff on grosser margins?
00:20:44
Speaker
That was a fair question. How is that a fair question? because grosser margins are only about 3%, 3.5% at best. So to sustain a whole kitchen staff on top of that, is really really the labor cost doesn't make sense. And that was fair.
00:20:59
Speaker
um And so what we did. is we built a workforce program that is training returning citizens and young people on those first and next steps in their career. And we're able to get state, philanthropy, federal, and city grants to offset those labor costs because it's a workforce development training program. So we go back to the banks after developing this program for over a year and say, look, our labor costs are 50% down because it's subsidized. Give us a loan.
00:21:25
Speaker
And they go, hmm, that's cool, but we still haven't seen low-income communities support fresh nutrition access. How are you going to do that differently? And what they were really saying is we don't believe low-income communities want healthy food or can support it. And, of course, we're with our neighbors every day, and this is all they're asking for. That this is something we know, we have research data on it, but they're really saying we don't believe in the purchasing power of Snap, which is only about $5 a day per person per household. But we don't believe that there's enough money, despite the fact in our community, we have 20,000 neighbors within walking distance who don't have a grocery store.
00:22:03
Speaker
so And we have 150 riders at our at our bus stop in front of the store every single morning. We have an elementary school with 400 families next door. And all of that was like, we just haven't seen this approved purchasing power. And that's where we said, okay, we are going to listen, which is what we're best at and listen with intention. How can we build better systems to prove that nutrition access is financeable?
00:22:27
Speaker
And that was where we started looking into the food is medicine movement. and understanding that home care providers in our neighborhood are paying for two meals a day. And those two meals lay at the time were getting reimbursed at $14 a meal. That was through some very cool 1115B Medicaid waivers, which I won't dive into because that's really specific. But all that to say is that the food system has a little bit of money. The health system has a lot. And we were like, how can we, with intention, incorporate our health system into this infrastructure to allow this to be financeable, to bring in more revenue, to prove purchasing
Health System Integration and Nutrition Studies
00:23:00
Speaker
power? And that led us on a journey of working with Penn Medicine to do some research, which was community led and driven to figure out how our neighbors are shopping, to see what our health outcomes of our neighbors are, and to prove that this retailer of nutrition access is actually improving health outcomes, reduc reducing health care costs. And that if we put intention supports everyone from farmers to families to our health system. And so that's what we've been building. And what we've been able to prove and show was that through our research was that one of every two of our neighbors has type two diabetes. Over 60% of our neighbors have hypertension or some sort of chronic diet related disease that is fully preventable.
00:23:40
Speaker
And what we've been trying to prove in going to insurers and going to health systems is that one yeah ER visit for two days for, let's say, you know, heart failure, three days is $15,000, $20,000. But for our health systems, we're to focus on the upstream benefits of improved nutrition access paired with, you know,
00:23:58
Speaker
a dietician paired with health you know additional health resources that we're actually going to save money. um And so we're really excited to actually start piloting that work. And that includes a postpartum study where mothers who give birth in our community are given $40 a week to our grocery store.
00:24:15
Speaker
And that we're going to see over the years of how specifically our model, which allows for that hot meal transformation and where everything in the store is healthy. Everything is low sodium. Everything is farm fresh. We're not selling ultra processed food like the typical whole grocery store. that that this offering improves health outcomes for mothers, both mentally and physically.
00:24:35
Speaker
And so all of a sudden, we go back to the loan committee and say, look, we have this study approved with mothers, and they're going to spend $40 a week for 18 weeks.
Demonstrating Healthcare Cost Savings through Nutrition
00:24:45
Speaker
And they go, huh, well, there's money, there's cash. And what other...
00:24:49
Speaker
things are you doing? And that includes everything from deliveries and all of that for us to finally get the loan approval from the bank. So it was the integration with the health system plus the workforce program that they said, okay, we can finance this because you have guaranteed revenue coming in through these integrations. And really what we're trying to prove in the next 18 months here is actually start showing those health benefits and those cost savings. so that in the same way that you and me go to the doctor and get antibiotics, someone with a diet-related condition can go the doctor and get a far a prescription for food and fulfill it at our store.
00:25:25
Speaker
And so our whole second floor space, which I didn't talk about, so the first floor is the grocer and the kitchen, and our upstairs is a community health and education center where you can meet with a dietician, a doctor, and hopefully in the next 18 months, go get a prescription for your diet-related condition and fulfill it downstairs. And that is everything it's taken over the last six years to build one store in Southwest Philly to bring back persistent nutrition access.
00:25:53
Speaker
And that's where we're going, continuing to build, continuing to grow. But it is a playbook, right, for every community that needs this, knowing that food needs to look different. And so for us, it's continuing to learn, to do the research, and to scale what we've learned here in Southwest into a model for the whole country. Amazing. um Eli, I'm very impressed. Like I have to say your entrepreneurial commitment to overcoming these blockages where most people would say like, a okay, not gonna work.
00:26:23
Speaker
It was a good idea, but here it ends. They're like, no, we'll we'll find a way around it. That's that's incredible. You like went the extra mile several times. So ah congrats on doing that. And the results are clearly happening.
00:26:38
Speaker
And I also love this whole aspect. This is something that I have been hoped like waiting for and I'm actively um shaping as well. It's like when we just make the, even for governments, for people personally, um if you just make the calculations on how much the healthcare is costing and how much, how cheap,
00:26:58
Speaker
food it actually is in comparison, like double your, your, so your, your spendings and, and buy healthy food from local farmers, your healthcare barrel is going to like go also in half. And it's way more than than, like, I think the average in America, uh, helped me out here, but it's like between 200,000, uh, on healthcare in a lifetime, which is like, most people don't have that money.
00:27:25
Speaker
So that's like a game over. Which is wild to think of that, especially it's a free country and has good and bad things. But even in in countries like Europe, in in europe where you have social security and all that just for the governments, how much money it's costing the governments and taxpayer money to have a good healthcare system. It's just, it's, it doesn't make, it doesn't make sense anymore. Like take a ah fraction of that money and spend it in farming and and giving people better access to it and creating infrastructure like you're doing. And we were, we solved so many problems. So very exciting to actually, like we've, we heard the theory of, I've,
00:28:05
Speaker
studied in with researchers and I've been in that world of like, ah, this is exactly what we need to do. And then it stays in the in the books. Nobody actually does anything with it. So very cool to see that you guys are are creating it as we speak. So congratulations.
00:28:22
Speaker
Thank you. And that's really you know what our work has been. it has been connecting those systems you speak about. We are literally building a physical infrastructure but it's that physical infrastructure connects the health system to our neighbors who there's a huge disconnect between our neighbors in Southwest Philly and healthcare they're getting, providing and taking and utilizing. And that is really where a lot of the failures come in as well. But then it's saying, okay, well, if we put intention into those dollars, we can improve that spend for sure. But if we as a retailer are also intentional with our dollars, then we can support farmers on the other end and if local distributors.
Collaboration with Local Farmers
00:29:00
Speaker
And that's where, you know, you know this from our health, you know being in the food space in your research, but farming this country is really difficult. And we, our government has subsidized all the wrong things, right? It's a lot of corn, it's a lot of soybean. And for farmers, you have to go where the money is because it's such a difficult thing to do.
00:29:17
Speaker
But for us, we've been able to say, look, we're a retailer that's only selling regenerative, delicious, farm fresh ingredients. We're open year round. right We have the health system dollars that ensure our doors open. So instead of going to a big supply supplier or you know middleman, it's going directly to the farmers and saying, hey, we can guarantee this amount of purchasing, which is the whole point of government subsidies is to is to guarantee a level of purchasing. And we're saying, well, we're going to guarantee you that for you. And can you grow what you need or what we need for our store? And so we're working with amazing farmers. One is Farmer John. You should look her up. She's a regenerative organic black farmer, the largest black farm in the state of Pennsylvania. um And she is growing intentionally with us. We actually just invested with her in a greenhouse. So we have food in the winter because PA winters are cold. And she has multiple acres of land that she's growing for our store. And with confidence and having us as a consistent buyer, she's able to grow, to expand and be successful. So it's everything from...
00:30:19
Speaker
our farmers to you know our store, of course, as a workforce program, creating economic opportunity to our health systems, where with intention, we can connect these systems and ensure that real good food exists um because it's hard to be a farmer and all of that needed to come together. And it's just Like you said, it's every hurdle imaginable that we've had over these six years. But just saying we're going to do it with confidence. Like we have a dream. We're going bring it to life. And then just put intention into every step.
00:30:46
Speaker
And like you said, it's it's been tough. It's been six years. It's been slow. We've made every mistake possible. now But here we are. We're in the next 18 months. And yeah shortly after this interview, you'll get to see us go from one store to a national model.
00:31:01
Speaker
And that's where we're getting to. That's amazing. yeah you You kind of pencil everything out on a local scale in one project. You make all the mistakes that you can so it's also more affordable mistakes and then you can scale from there.
00:31:16
Speaker
I love that. And support, like working directly with the regenerative farmers, that's brilliant. and And you have that whole supply chain. That's always the key. like If you say, okay, I'm going to grow regenerative food because I love it, good job, but if you can't If you don't have the market, you're already done as a farmer. like It's hard to get people to find to pay premium or the right price for what you produce.
00:31:41
Speaker
So that's that's brilliant. I'd love to ah hear a bit more about um on the economics of it. tech what um At what what price can people buy the meal? let's say without the the the snap system, just curious to know.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yes, snap, cash, credit card. I mean, right, everything is priced the same. yeah However you're paying. But for us, it's really, you know, an individual platter is around $750. And family platters are are going for, you know, um under $20.
00:32:13
Speaker
Under 20, that feeds four people or more? for Yeah, four folks for one meal. and that's And that's really for us, it's been... Seven dollars. And we're in the US, like I'm thinking in euros even. But yeah I cannot cook a meal for seven euros. And...
00:32:30
Speaker
and And that's tough. Look, that work for us is tough to get those prices, but for us, it has been doing this as a nonprofit has been really critical for us, where we, of course, are a business. We have to keep our lights on. We have to keep the prices at a point where we don't disappear.
00:32:47
Speaker
um But doing it as a nonprofit allows us to get everything from government subsidies on our workforce or labor costs are diminished to grants to actually do this purchasing from the farms with intention because, you know, for Farmer John, she's having zero food waste because she's growing with intention with us. So her prices, even those regenerative organic food is cheaper than going to a wholesaler for non-regenerative, non-organic. Yeah. food yeah um and And so we are, you know, the true cost of a meal probably costs us more around $10 for sure. But because we have the subsidies as a nonprofit, we have philanthropy dollars and we have folks who are listening to this podcast and want to donate, right? We can offset some of those costs as well for our neighbors. Amazing. Well, even if you would take away, because that's also important and to look at, like, even if you take away the subsidies, like if if it were 7.5 and you you... remove the subsidies and now it becomes like $20, then I would be worried about it because you have to like build something that also functions without subsidies. And I think if you like even if you have to pay $10 to have healthy, regenerative, nutritious food that you don't even have to cook anymore, it's ah it's a bargain um because I know in in the US things are very expensive. Do you know what, like even if people do grocery shopping and they
00:34:07
Speaker
what what the average spend is on a meal or or just like, do you know what people spend on average? At our location, they're all over the the place. I mean, ah both actually, I'd be curious to know if you have. I mean, I'll just speak, you know, anecdotally for myself, right? When i when I'm shopping, it's more expensive than ever. For i for two it's about or two of us, about a week. um you know a household of two, me and my girlfriend. And that's expensive, right? like the The prices are too up for right now. um
00:34:41
Speaker
So this is, you know our work is specifically has been tailored for low income communities, but this is something that again, it's bringing into those health system dollars that allow this to work for everyone. yeah um And you know some folks would say, oh, well, how would we pay for food in the health system? It's like, well, because you're actually saving money. And there's so much research that has gone behind that.
00:34:59
Speaker
But my my issue and and what our work is, is, hey, we know we know good food is healthy for you. We know foreign fresh ingredients are good for you. We know it improves your health. Let's stop doing a research and let's actually execute on it and build something.
00:35:13
Speaker
And that's what we're doing. ah And it is the evidence is not there's like even in anything about regenerative farming, soil health, climate change, to all the biggest problems in the world.
00:35:26
Speaker
we we know, like we documented it enough. We don't need another research paper. Sometimes like you're doing, if you want to help with the financing and you need certain proof, then the science work is important too.
00:35:38
Speaker
But ah it's pretty clear like what what we need and what results. on outcomes we need. So I'm very impressed and very excited ah to see this expand and grow across the US and other countries because you've solved a few problems with with your work. It's the accessibility, the convenience, which is the convenience is a really big one because even if if you could yeah like prepare the packages and people have to cook it, it's it's very difficult. So lots of great benefits. um
00:36:11
Speaker
And then not to even speak about the the impact on the farmers and how you, with that farmer you're working with, she can expand her business. She can become more competitive with other farms. um So very cool to see that. Yeah.
00:36:25
Speaker
And So what's what's the next step for you? Like you talked about the next 18 months, what's what's happening next and what are you most focusing on this
Future Goals and National Expansion
00:36:34
Speaker
year? Yeah, i mean, look, for us, my work has been everything from overseeing concrete pours and construction to, you know, we we give out some free meals as well as part of our marketing and being in the kitchen myself, which...
00:36:47
Speaker
I should not be. I'm not the best cook in the world. We have a really good team who are great cooks. But for me, it's a step back from that, from doing so much of of that kind of work and looking on more of that systems-wide change. And like you said, this everything over the last six years has been every hurdle of why we don't have persistent nutrition access in low-income communities across this country. The same issues in West Philadelphia exist in West Virginia. And so for me, where I view my work going in the next 18 months is to create the playbook of what we learned very naturally on community building that, you know you can't open a retailer in a community without full community buy-in. How do you do that? Because me and my business partner are two white kids from DC. How did we end up in Southwest Philly with the whole support of every, of all of our neighbors to build this? So sharing that, sharing the financing hurdles, how do you actually create a workforce program that can get yeah state and city dollars? How do you work with health providers? What are they looking for in a meal, in a program to be able to subsidize and come in with intention with the health system? What are the waivers? And so for me, it is to take all those lessons learned and put into a playbook. So that if you're a city commissioner, if you're a mom, Donnie, or if you're a developer who wants to open up a grocer in your community, you can reach out to us and we'll share with that that with you. and Whether I'm coming out yeah to where you're living and I can come and consult or whether it's you just have the playbook and take it for yourself. ah That's where I really envision our role. And like you said early, you know a lot of people ask, well, God, you went through a lot of hurdles to allow SNAP recipients to walk away with a hot meal.
00:38:24
Speaker
Why not go and change the federal policy? Because one, that's very difficult to do. i think in the long term would be working on systems-wide change. that That includes policy to put intention back into our systems. Because at the end of the day, if we focus on local resiliency,
00:38:40
Speaker
of creating communities that can sustain, that can feed and help help each other, then we're going live in a lot, a lot better world and country if we just take care of each other. And that just takes intention, right? That means, yes, maybe we're spending a little bit more money to go to a regenerative organic farmer, but that's better for our planet. It's actually better for...
00:39:02
Speaker
our neighbors who are eating and they're improving their health outcomes, which all of that is just putting intention into it. So for me, that is where I see our work going. It's becoming more of a playbook we can share with you all. And it's becoming more of a thought leader that allows us to put in intention into all of our systems.
00:39:20
Speaker
and And that's where, you know, I view that as my life's purpose is to bring people together to build stronger and healthier communities. Yeah, that's amazing. And your experience ah is amazing. worth its watch much more than than whatever we learned in the school books and so you you'll even be able to help other neighborhoods from rich to poor to set up similar um ways because it's a generally nice to be able to have healthy affordable and um ready-made food that that yeah that has a good impact on the environment and
00:39:55
Speaker
So yeah, that's very cool. So Eli, do you have anything else you want to share before we start wrapping up the interview? Also like how people can reach out? How can they contribute? Who are you looking for? Maybe people that are listening. Yeah, a nice t-shirt. Love it. Yeah, so I'm wearing the shirt. I would say the first thing that I'm always looking for is, look, we're a nonprofit. We're a 501c3 organization. So anyone who wants to support this vision, who wants to see us be able to bring it to the rest of the country, that takes investment, right? We need to grow our team. We need to actually invest in the documentation of creating that
Encouragement for Support and Collaboration
00:40:29
Speaker
playbook. So anyone who heard this and wants to support, go to our website, which is thecommunitygrocer.org. please consider making a donation, supporting this work, supporting this vision. The other piece is, yeah, if you are someone who wants to see this kind of access in your community, we'd love to hear from you. There's a form also on that same website you can fill out and we'll reach out and share with you what we've learned. I'm always willing to have a conversation. If you're someone in the food space, the health space, and you want to connect and learn, just go to our website, communitygrocer.org.
00:41:00
Speaker
For those who are most more social media savvy, our Instagram is at the.community.grocer. So give us a follow. Please reach out. Please donate and stay in touch. We're always looking connect.
00:41:14
Speaker
Awesome. Well, thank you very much, Eli, for coming on the show and sharing your story. Keep doing the great work. It's a transformational. it's It's what the world needs. So yeah, again, congratulations and hope to get you back on the show in the future. And then we can see how many shops we've opened across America and maybe some other countries.
00:41:35
Speaker
Let's make it happen. and Thank you so much. I'll talk soon.