World We Imagine Pitch

 

The Good Market

One in five people living in Los Angeles don’t know where their next meal will come from, equating to two million people living with food insecurity. With Los Angeles being home of the hungry, I saw an opportunity to combat the endless cycle of food insecurity and homelessness. I founded The Good Market two years ago after working at Safe Place for Youth—a resource facility for people experiencing homelessness in LA—and seeing how impossible it is to exit the streets.

 

Mission

The Good Market’s mission is to provide organic, healthy groceries at a low cost to food insecure people and offer employment opportunities for people experiencing homelessness, all while reducing produce waste.

 

The Good Market is a supermarket that offers healthy, organic foods at low prices in primarily food desert areas. The supermarkets team up with local farms and acquire any produce or food products that aren’t accepted at traditional grocery stores or buyers due to odd shape, coloring, etc. and offer them at a discounted price. Not only does the supermarket eliminate food waste and provide affordable products, but it partners with homeless resource organizations to employ people experiencing homelessness (low income, extremely low income, zero income) in our markets. 

 

Overview of Company

Food products are thrown away everyday because grocery stores and other vendors won’t buy produce that doesn’t look right and won’t sell in stores. Instead of throwing away a zucchini that is a little crooked or a batch of strawberries that aren’t bright enough red, local farms and suppliers sell or donate directly to our supermarkets. Because our supermarkets are getting our products at a discounted cost, we can sell it to customers for a low price. This makes it more accessible and affordable for people to buy fresh groceries. 

 

The Good Market employs people experiencing homelessness as cashiers, baggers, merchandise stockers, and any other entry-level position to give them work experience and provide them enough income to hopefully exit the streets while living in temporary housing. Working directly with homeless shelters or resource providers, we train our employees and give them a livable wage, and eventually getting promoted to higher positions.

Uniqueness of Company

This social enterprise is unique as it is a service/product delivery organization and an employment organization. While most organizations focus on one type of social enterprise, The Good Market, expands its views to help the community in diverse ways. The Good Market addresses three issues facing our environment: it provides affordable groceries, employs people who want to exit the streets, and reduces waste.

 

By working directly with resource organizations, The Good Market, creates the greatest impact and can understand the most efficient ways to work with their employees. The most valuable aspect of The Good Market is their relationships. We have built strong connections with local farms in a mutually beneficial way. Despite any competition that may arise, we believe these strong relationships will prove to be maintain our advantage.

 

Why?

Food insecurity is an on-going issue in the United States and throughout the world. Food is one of the three basic needs for survival, yet so many people don’t know where their next meal will come from. We all need food, but we don’t all have access to food. Not only is it challenging to find food, but there are minimal healthy and affordable options. With an increase in food deserts, there is an evident lack of affordable healthy options. Organic and nutritious food should not be reserved only for people who can pay a premium; it should be accessible to everyone.

 

There is a stigma against homelessness that people are lazy, addictive, or incompetent, but often it is a case of people without luck or opportunities. I see this stigma almost every day in the way we treat homelessness in society. One of the reasons why it is so hard for people to exit the streets when experiencing homelessness is because it is difficult to find a job. If you don’t have prior work experience or don’t have an address, employers are uninterested in hiring you. At my social enterprise, we provide opportunities for people experiencing homelessness that want to get out of the continuous cycle of rejection. Having worked with a different organization trying to combat homelessness, I believe this is the most beneficial way to help.

 

Investment Opportunity

We are asking AMDP to invest $50,000 in order for The Good Market to grow and scale, providing even more opportunities for our community. AMDP should invest in The Good Market because our business model is sustainable. There will always be a market for people wanting to buy affordable, healthy groceries. Because of that, there will always be job opportunities for zero/low-income people. The more stores that there are, the more we can scale up and reduce costs. As long as we maintain strong relationships with our suppliers, our supermarkets will continue to grow. Buying the “unwanted” groceries from suppliers is extra income that they alternatively would not have. Therefore, continuing a relationship with my social enterprise would benefit all parties. Over the past two years we have seen large profit margins, high inventory turnover, and low employee turnover rates.

 

Let’s work together to create a better community! Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.