Purveying the Milk of Human Kindness in an Urban Food Desert
By Lorrie Baumann
The Salvation Army has opened a 27,000-square foot neighborhood grocery store in a Baltimore neighborhood that had been a food desert. The new store, opened on March 7, has the aesthetics of a specialty grocery, but it’s designed as a non-profit enterprise with ambitions to serve the community in ways that go beyond purveying food.
“It’s the first Salvation Army grocery store ever, since our founding in 1865,” said Salvation Army Major Gene A. Hogg, who oversees the project. Despite the lack of grocery retail experience, DMG Foods merges skill sets that the Salvation Army acquired through its long history of setting up canteens in disaster areas, operating rescue shelters and running thrift stores. Hogg added: “We have some retail experience.”
The DMG is an acronym for a Salvation Army motto: “Doing the Most Good.” The neighborhood in which the store operates is an unstable inner-city environment in which residents are subject to poverty, drug use and unemployment as well as food insecurity. According to the Maryland Food Bank, which partners with the Salvation Army to provide services at DMG Foods, more than 682,000 people in Maryland don’t get enough to eat, and one in nine Marylanders are food insecure. Baltimore City itself has a food insecurity rate of 23 percent and 25 percent of Baltimore residents live in a food desert according to St. Vincent de Paul Baltimore.
Nearly half of the Marylanders who don’t get enough to eat are working – they just don’t earn enough to feed and provide shelter for themselves and their children. Many of those Baltimore residents do much of their shopping in neighborhood bodegas and convenience stores where their food options are limited, simply because they don’t have transportation access to the nearest supermarket. The City of Baltimore defines a food desert as “an area where the distance to a supermarket or supermarket alternative is more than 1/4 mile, the median household income is at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, over 30 percent of households have no vehicle available, and the average Healthy Food Availability Index score for all food stores is low.” The Healthy Food Availability Index is based on a market basket of whole foods – milk, fruits, vegetables, meat, frozen foods, low-sodium foods, bread, beans, rice and breakfast cereal, and scores indicate the presence of these foods as well as food options judged healthy according to U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition standards.
DMG Foods is located in one of Baltimore’s urban food deserts. “Seventy-three percent of the people who live in the quarter-mile radius of the [DMG Foods] store have no transportation,” Hogg said. “Their options are to get on a bus or catch a ride with a private transportation service and go three or four miles out of their community to get to a full-service grocery.”
DMG Foods helps fill that gap in its neighborhood. An LEED Gold facility built in a repurposed warehouse that the Salvation Army had already owned, it’s a brightly lit, modern neighborhood market. The store’s mobile-friendly website allows shoppers to check in with their phones, see the daily specials and make a shopping list right on their phones. “The look is like any other grocery store with respect to lighting, signage and displays, aisle space and selection,” Hogg said. “People in this area did not have this available to them.”
There no two thoughts that this purchase cialis http://greyandgrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/LaPietra.pdf has no such marketing cost as the other medicine has. Where to buy Kamagra http://greyandgrey.com/third-department-decisions-3-14-13/ viagra ordination tablets? Kamagra tablets are proven to be safe and effective strictly following the guidelines of Taekwondo America. Before the age cialis levitra price of 18, marriage of a girl and boy, may lead to many sexual problems. Never mix this medicine with nitrate, other erectile dysfunction medicines online. generic cheap cialis The market offers a meat counter with butcher service, a Red Shield Club loyalty program, and a meal solutions program that offers daily menu plans demonstrated by a chef provided by the Maryland Food Bank. Shoppers get to taste samples offered by the chef, and then they can go over to an in-store kiosk where they can print out the day’s menu as well as daily coupons. This taste-testing is about more than making the store a fun shopping experience – research by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future documents that healthy food purchasing may go up when taste tests are offered for new or unfamiliar foods that customers might not purchase out of concerns about potential waste. Shoppers with limited resources tend not to spend their money on food that they’re not sure their families will be willing to eat.
Once a month, a local chef will be coming in to prepare a meal while servers pass around hors d’oeuvres and live music plays. “It’s like a cooking date night that you would take your spouse out to,” Hogg said. These social events have a higher purpose too: the Johns Hopkins research also demonstrated that social environments, including family and community relationships, greatly influence diabetes-related dietary change. Diabetes is just one of the diet-related diseases common in Baltimore’s inner city.
DMG Foods is open to anyone who cares to shop there, but the Red Shield Club loyalty program offers special benefits to card holders who self-identify as recipients of government aid programs. When they scan their card in at the store’s kiosk, the coupons they get might include a free 10-pound bag of chicken pieces or a package of light bulbs – there’s something free every day for those shoppers. Other than a number code on the back, their cards are identical to those used by other shoppers, so there’s no obvious way to tell whether a shopper picked up the 10-pound bag of chicken because they qualify for government assistance or because it was on a daily special, so taking the help doesn’t require anyone to pay a price in lost dignity.
Encouraging shoppers to come into the store every day, often on their way home from walking their children to or from the school that’s across the street from the store, is part of the Salvation Army’s social programming around the store. “We’re helping train people to use their money wisely,” Hogg said. “We’re trying to educate individuals that if you shop daily for your daily meals, you’re shopping fresher, and it’s less expensive. You can’t tell people what to eat. They’re going to eat what they’re conditioned to eat, what they’ve been eating. We think that having a constant presence, a constant tool for them to experience, we’ll eventually have an impact. … We’re trying to build a community centered around food. If we can create that community that’s connected, involved, participatory, we think we can make an impact. That remains to be seen, but we’re going to make a good effort at it.”
In addition to offering personal shoppers, provided by the City of Baltimore, cooking demonstrations and nutrition classes, DMG Foods also functions as a jobs training program. The store works with other Baltimore grocery stores to offer a workforce development program that trains entry-level grocers in the basics of store operations and customer service, which gives them the skills to be employable in other local stores. Hogg noted that the grocery business is exceptional for its ability to provide a career ladder, and he says that other local grocers have been eager to work with him on the workforce development program.
While the store isn’t intended to make any kind of profit, if there is any money on the table at the end of the day, those extra funds will go towards Catherine’s Cottage, a low-demand shelter for women who’ve been rescued from human trafficking that’s run by Hogg’s wife, Rebecca. “When you shop with us, you’re shopping for a cause,” Hogg said.
“We care about the community. We love the people in our community, and we want to help in this fashion. We see a need, and we’re trying to respond to the needs of our community,” he added. “I’m not thinking that we’re going to change the food industry at all. We’re trying to use that same sense of ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit to meet the needs of our community.”
Culinary Apple Tempts Shoppers to Stay a While
by Micah Cheek
Like many retailers, Mary and David Weldy have felt the pressure of competing with Amazon and other sales sites. But Mary and David aren’t worried about losing money to online markets, because they have made their store everything that Amazon isn’t ― an immersive, informative experience that’s worth traveling for.
Culinary Apple is located in Chelan, Washington, a tiny resort town in the heart of Apple country and on the edge of Lake Chelan. The store actually got its start from being a gift shop and hub for apple tourism. “We shopped for everything apple! Apple candles, apple teapots and apple aprons, to name a few. That’s how we became the ‘Apple Store,’” says David Weldy, Co-Owner. “We private labeled our apple jams, jelly and butters. We started selling beautiful apple gift baskets with these items including fresh harvested apples. And then we ultimately got into buying a fudge factory and putting it in the store.” After separately opening a kitchenware store as well, the Weldys decided to put their two businesses together. “We took the best of each store and developed that. Look at all that fresh fudge! Roasted glazed nuts! [You come in and] all of a sudden you see so many things that you wouldn’t expect in a kitchen store,” David adds. Dubbed Culinary Apple, the new store has been curated with items for each wave of customers that will come in throughout the year. During the summer, Chelan’s population swells from 7,000 to 25,000 with the influx of tourists and people who own second homes on the edge of the lake. “We’re kicking off our high season now. Our peak time frame is June, July and August,” says Mary, Co-Owner. “We have what’s called ‘Conference Season.’ We do conference gifts and attendee gifts. That’s March, April and May, and again in September, October and November, which is our harvest time for apples. Even though our visitors and tourists have gone back to the other side of the mountains, we still have our conference attendees.”
Lots of Culinary Apple’s kitchenware business comes from the seasonal residents who need to outfit their second home with new tools or something they forgot on the trip. “Obviously kitchen gadgets are a huge part of our business,” says David. For a time, the store was also outfitted with a wide variety of electric appliance options as well. But as time passed, the profits from small electrics began to shrink. “We don’t carry a lot of that product like we used to. We’ve already eliminated Vitamix, they’ve sold their soul to Amazon. We were doing Soda Stream, but all the big box stores got involved in it, so we moved away from Soda Stream,” says David. “We reduced our electric lines, and got a lot of shelf space for things that turn better with higher margins.”
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When the rewards bring them to the store, customers will meet a Culinary Apple team that the Weldys have seriously invested in educating. “We do a phenomenal business in knives, and it’s because our team knows a lot about knives,” says Mary. David adds, “A few weeks ago we had WÜSTHOF do training in store for the staff followed by a sales training trip to Seattle for knife skill training by Shun. Then we went to Progressive [International] and did about a six-hour training with them.” To make sure their staff is as knowledgeable as possible, Mary and David take their team to as many company training programs as they can. “We gave up about $2,500 in sales by closing our store, we spend about $800 to take our team over, but that was so inexpensive compared to the team building, training and brainstorming. Every time we get back to the store we see how enthusiastic everyone is to share what they have learned. It just pays off dividends.”
The experienced staff integrates into a store experience designed to appeal to all the senses. “When you come in you’ll smell nuts roasting, or someone in the back making fudge. We’re still getting lots of baby boomers, so we play that music that appeals to them. It makes them feel good,” says David. “Then they’re greeted with one of our team. ‘Hello, would you like to try a cinnamon-glazed pecan?’ And then they get a taste. It’s about appealing to all the senses.”
Culinary Apple has leveraged its fruit-focus theme to leverage deals with manufacturers. “We just completed an agreement with Dexas. They have a beautiful apple cutting board that we sell in the store. We have a co-op that looks for apple products to give to their growers for their big annual fall harvest party,” says David. “We [also] did that with JK Adams with their apple cutting board. These are the kinds of things we’ve done to grow our business. You’ve got to think outside of the box, not just waiting for that next customer to walk into your store, but reaching out to corporate clients and asking for there business. Like our sign says on our front door, ‘Culinary Apple a store to experience.’”
Cheese Shop Finds Foodies in Des Moines
By Robin Mather
For a while, C.J. Bienert thought that he’d love to run his own cheesemaking company. Then he went on a year-long “cheese sabbatical,” as he calls it, and learned something important about himself.
“Cheesemaking is really about washing a lot of dishes,” he says. “I learned that while working at cheese companies in that year. One day someone asked me what I wanted to do and I was surprised to hear ‘I want to open a cheese shop’ come out of my mouth.”
So, after a year of working “when I could” and interning “sometimes for free” with various cheesemakers around the United States, C.J. returned to Des Moines, Iowa, and opened The Cheese Shop of Des Moines in 2011.
The shop, with storage and production in a 600-square-foot basement and a retail space of about 550 square feet at street level, specializes in artisanal American cheeses and domestic charcuterie, he says. It’s located in a strip mall called The Shops at Roosevelt in the Historic Roosevelt Cultural District. “It looks like a standard strip mall,” Bienert says, “but it’s really food-centric.”
The mall is also home to specialty grocer VomFASS, which sells wine, spirits, specialty oils and gourmet foods; and to La Mie, a long-time Des Moines artisanal bakery and cafe. “Most of our employees live within two to four miles of the shop,” Bienert says, “and many of our customers also live in the neighborhood. Each of us (the other food shops) brings in customers for the others, so it works really well.”
The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday, so Bienert and his six-person staff can enjoy a full two days off each week. “We’re a family business,” he says. “I believe we all need time off to reenergize.”
That’s particularly important for Bienert, who with his wife, Kari, has two children: 2-1/2-year-old son Solomon and infant daughter Coral, who was born in early June — the same week that the Bienerts opened Cheese Bar DSM, a 3,000-square-foot 70-seat cafe that offers more seating for customers than the original Cheese Shop can provide.
C.J. met Kari when he was selling cheese in a gourmet shop and she was working in the store’s wine department. “She’d been in organic farming,” C.J. says, “and she’s definitely a foodie, so we had a lot in common.” Today, Kari juggles the company’s bookkeeping and payroll duties while staying at home with the kids. “I don’t think she’d like to hear me refer to her as a ‘stay-at-home mom,’ “ Bienert quips. “She’s probably feeding the kids while she does payroll right now.” Bienert credits ZingTrain, the business development company in the Zingerman’s family of businesses, with much of his success, he says. “We wouldn’t be here, probably, if it weren’t for ZingTrain.” He calls himself a “servant-leader,” and encourages his staff to develop their potential.
Thorough ConsultationWhile the pharmacists at your local store cialis tadalafil 100mg will be there to answer your queries, you may not have the time to make the changes necessary in your diet to achieve better blood flow. The medicine is made with the same ingredient of side effects viagra downtownsault.org erection-helping medicine. Due to these properties this herb normalizes all the three doshas, kapha, vata and pitta dosha. discount viagra usa How to study NLP? You must experience NLP to study it. generic cialis cheapest “Like I did on my cheese sabbatical, I encourage my employees to take the time to find out what they really want to do,” he says. “I say, ‘If you want to take the summer off to go intern at a cheese plant, you can do that.’ I keep a current list of cheesemakers seeking interns available at all times.”
Bienert qualified for the American Cheese Society’s Certified Cheese Professional accreditation a couple of years ago, he says, and he’s encouraging his staff to pursue that, too, if they’re interested. “I have some staff people who’ve been with me for five years, and some of them came to me with no cheese experience, but now they’ve fallen in love with cheese. I’ve been in the business for 16 years, but I like to be a good ‘servant-leader’ and lead by example. The accreditation has definitely opened some doors for me.”
Bienert got his start when he was just 19, working for Barbara Horn at her Des Moines shop, Wine Experience, which closed in 2006. “The shop was ahead of the curve and it had a great cheese counter, but in those days, there wasn’t a plethora of web sites or cheese information out there like there is today,” Bienert, now 34, says. “Barbara said then, ‘This is a growing industry.’ And today I tell my employees the same thing — cheese is a growing industry.”
Bienert enthusiastically works to help Des Moines help the cheese industry grow. Classes and samplings at Cheese Shop aid in the growth. “We do classes at the cheese shop once a week, on Mondays,” he says. “They’re themed — things like wine and cheese pairing, cheese 101, cheese 2.0, comparing wine vs. beer for pairings, things like that.” Somewhat to his surprise, the classes have become much more than he expected. “When we first started six years ago, we thought the classes would be just marketing, but they also promote revenue. We seat 25 people, oftentimes sell out and sometimes have people standing for the whole class. We make money on our classes.”
His customers have been appreciative, he says, and that keeps his own enthusiasm revved up. “It excites me that people are that interested in good cheese,” he says.
He recognizes that his store occupies a very special niche, but that’s part of its strength.
“I used Europe as our model and travel to Europe annually. We visit cheese shops and independent retailers, and they have a niche that larger stores can’t provide,” Bienert says.
As examples, he says, “Our main competitor would be grocery stores, but they don’t have our relationship with producers. We’ll drive nine hours to pick up a cheese from the producer on our day off, turn around and drive nine hours home again, just so that cheese will be in perfect condition when we get it to the shop.
“We also do products from La Quercia,” Bienert says of the Iowa company that produces prize-winning domestic prosciuttos and other salumi. “Large stores have a hard time doing things like the hand-carving of a full prosciutto with the hoof still attached, and then giving it proper care. But again, that’s something we can do. It’s not only theatrical and looks cool, it’s also tasty.” There’s no other shop in Des Moines like his, Bienert says, “but I feel there will be more, and I encourage the competition. Again, we’ll rely on our connection with our producers.”
