News

Kellogg Foundation backs QSR, Everytable, focused on good food in poor communities

January 14, 2019

Grab-and-go six-store QSR, Everytable, has secured its first investment from the Kellogg Foundation, according to a news release. The organization said it aims to redefine the food landscape by offering healthful, scratch-made food at fast-food prices in the hope of ridding the world of so-called "food deserts" and food injustice, where low-income communities are left with few to no nutritious options for dining out.

"Everytable's mission directly aligns with our goal to increase access to fresh, local, healthy food and improve nutrition for children and families," Kellogg Foundation Director of Mission Investment Cynthia Muller, said in the release. "Children are at the heart of everything we do, and this investment creates healthy and affordable food options that are culturally relevant for families—something that rarely exists in food-insecure communities."

Everytable is a social enterprise defined as those endeavors that combine what the release said is the "heart of a nonprofit" with the scalability and potential of for-profits. Foundations, like the Kellogg Foundation, can invest in social enterprises through Program-related Investments, or PRIs. These hybrid businesses then have the potential to bridge equity gaps in a society. 

Everytable said in the release it plans to:

• Pilot a franchise model targeted for entrepreneurs of color from underserved communities.
• Explore a model designed to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
• Run educational programming for students at California State University, Los Angeles at its store opening this January. 

"The Kellogg Foundation is the gold-standard of foundations. Their innovative approach to equality and justice has improved countless lives and communities, and we at Everytable are honored by their confidence in our team, and our business model, which we believe has the potential to reshape the food system to make healthy food affordable and accessible for all," Everytable founder and CEO Sam Polk, said in the release.

Everytable currently has six stores—Baldwin Hills, Cal State LA, Compton, Downtown Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and South Los Angeles—and two more opening early next year in Watts and Brentwood. The stores located in underserved areas (also referred to as food deserts) sell meals for $5 to $6, and in the more affluent areas, the same meals are priced $8 to $9.