Let’s Keep El Sereno GreenGrocer Thriving!
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Dear GreenGrocer Community,
We need your help to keep our beloved community hub alive and sustainable. Our situation is urgent, yet workable with your support. Your contributions will help us continue to nourish our community through food, culture, and connection.
Our Story: A Neighborhood Expression of Care
El Sereno GreenGrocer is more than just a market – it's a labor of love, a celebration of cultures, and an expression of care for our community. As Queer, Chicana women and first-time small business owners, we've poured our hearts into creating space that nourishes our collective bodies and souls. From day one, y'all have shown up and we are grateful.
We're cultivating a business model that centers community care, from seed to kin. This means we prioritize partnerships with small, BIPOC farms paying fair wages and BIPOC vendors charging fair cost for their goods. It extends to sharing recipes and creating opportunities to break bread with neighbors in meaningful ways. We're constantly refining our pricing strategies to ensure that locally and organically grown produce is reasonably priced.
Despite the challenges we've faced as underresourced first-time business owners in a competitive industry, we've created a vibrant community space that's become a home away from home for many. Now, we need your help to ensure this vital expression of community care continues to thrive.
2024 has been extra tough on small businesses, and we're feeling the pinch. But with your support, we can overcome these challenges and continue serving our community with the dedication you've come to expect from us.
We're turning to you, our community, for support. We believe that by coming together, we can overcome systemic barriers and sustain this unique model of neighborhood care through these early, crucial years as we move toward long-term sustainability. Your support will help us maintain while we build a resilient, community-centered business.
Our Path to Sustainability
Over the next few months, we hope to raise $500,000, and this crowdsource campaign is one strategy in that effort. Your donations will contribute to this broader fundraiser and give us the time and resources to implement several key initiatives that will allow us to continue and expand:
- E-commerce Expansion: Launch an online shop to reach existing and new customers and community
- Local Delivery Service: Investing in a vehicle to bring GreenGrocer to your doorstep
- Marketing Investment: Increase our visibility to attract new customers
- Continued Community Engagement: Maintain and expand our programming
- Beer & Wine Retail: Once we complete the final stages of our beer and wine application, we will offer a curated selection of local craft beers and wines, providing a new revenue stream and responding to one of the biggest asks we get
These strategic moves will help us diversify our revenue streams and build a more resilient business model, all while staying true to our community-centered approach and our commitment to care.
How We Shine
- We prioritize BIPOC farmers, food makers and food creatives
- Fair wages: All staff start at $25/hour with benefits
- Local partnerships: We showcase local startups and artisans
- Community hub: We host various group meetups and cultural events
- Unique offerings: From Don Victor's honey to Choco Bananas to Cucamelons :-)
Our Impact
In just one year, we've:
- Nourished El Sereno and neighboring communities!
- Hosted numerous community events, bringing community and neighbors together and fostering connections
- Partnered with a diverse array of local vendors, many of whom are new small businesses
- Provided a welcoming space for regular community group meetings
- Offered free pop-up opportunities to support and showcase emerging local businesses
- Contributed to building out local foodways that are a counterpoint to the dominant, corporate food industry that’s wreaking havoc on humans and all our non-human relatives, and on Mother Earth
How You Can Help
- Donate: Every contribution makes a difference
- Spread the Word: Share our campaign on social media and with your networks
- Visit Us, and Bring a Friend!: Your continued presence is vital to our sustainability!
Our Commitment
With your help, we pledge to:
- Continue curating a nourishing tiendita
- Implement our sustainability initiatives
- Continue providing fair wages and benefits
- Expand our programming
- Increase our support for local vendors and startups
Thank you for being on this journey with us. Your support – past, present, and future – is the foundation of our success. Thank you for helping to bring El Sereno GreenGrocer to life everyday.
See you at the Shop!
En equipo, todo se puede.
Eri & Pati
Las Groseras del Sereno
MORE DETAILS BELOW
Why We Need Your Help: Sustaining Our Community-Centered Approach
Our commitment to a community-centered model of care and holistic nourishment, while deeply important to us and beneficial to our neighborhood, comes with significant financial challenges. A key part of our approach - and a major factor in our high operational costs - is our commitment to paying ourselves and our staff fair wages and providing benefits. We believe this is essential to creating a sustainable and equitable business, but it does increase our financial needs.
From the very beginning, we've been navigating a complex financial landscape while trying to maintain our commitment to collective care and nourishment:
- We started with an initial high-interest loan, co-signed by Patricia's mother, which allowed us to launch GreenGrocer and achieve all we have so far.
- Our original plan was to refinance this loan and secure a new loan to support us through the crucial first three years of startup.
- Since we’ve opened, we’ve been writing grants and have completed two big loan applications which we were approved for financially, but faced an unexpected hurdle: our applications were declined because of a problem with identifying our identity. This issue seems to stem from the name "Patricia Torres," potentially reflecting a history of financial lending practices biased against Latinx names.
- These challenges are compounded by the current economic climate of an unexpected slow down in consumer spending across the board in 2024 due to a variety of factors.
You're Already Part of Our Journey
We want to emphasize that you, our amazing community, have been with us on this journey towards financial stability from the very beginning. Your support has been unwavering – from the overwhelming turnout at our soft and grand openings to the loyal regulars who brighten our days. You've shown up consistently, making GreenGrocer a vibrant part of the neighborhood.
Now, we're taking a bold step in how we approach our business. Along with seeking support from banks and philanthropic institutions, we're reaching out to you, our community, in a new way. By donating funds for our operations, you're playing a crucial role in sustaining and growing this community hub we've built together.
This approach might be different from what you're used to, but it reflects our commitment to transparency and our belief in the power of community. Your donations, combined with your continued patronage, are what will keep El Sereno GreenGrocer thriving and serving our neighborhood for years to come.
Organizer
Patricia Torres
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA