 Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining us. My name is Susie Lee, and I lead program-related investments at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and I will be moderating our discussion today. It's an honor to join forces again with SOCAP to host this conversation with our friends at every table. Every table is a mission-driven food company disrupting the food system by providing affordable, nutritious foods in communities that lack access to healthy options. In addition, they are providing flexible financial support to entrepreneurs through a radical social equity franchise model. The Kellogg Foundation is proud to be one of the early investors in every table. Three years ago, we made a one and a half million dollar program-related investment in every table to expand its retail stores and seed its social equity franchising model. We invested because every table aligns with our mission and commitment to creating an equitable, resilient, and sustainable food system so that every table can make good food available to children and families and create quality jobs. Today, we'll explore every table's innovative model, how systemic racism prevents people from accessing healthy, affordable food, and how a venture like this transforms the landscape by intentionally centering racial equity in its values. We see that workers are constantly being shortchanged in this current business environment. Small business owners of color were hit the hardest by the pandemic. Access to capital is disparate and many entrepreneurs of color did not receive the same federal relief as their white counterparts. Every table's franchise model is promising for entrepreneurs of color, their families, and the broader food ecosystem. And our goal for today's session is to really highlight the moment of opportunity to fix the broken food system and the financial system. And we hope you're inspired by every table's innovative model and come away with new ideas on how to embed racial equity into your work. Now I'd like to introduce our panelists. We have Caster D. Garrett Ademora, store manager, and every table university participant. Bryce Fluelen, executive director of every table's social equity franchise program, and Sam Polk, founder and CEO of every table. And as a reminder to all of our participants, you're welcome to drop comments or questions in the chat throughout the event. And with that, I will turn it over to you, Sam. Thanks, Susie. I really appreciate it. So my job is to give a little background on every table and who we are and what we do. And at our core, we're a social enterprise in Los Angeles whose mission is to transform the food system to make fresh, nutritious food affordable and accessible for everyone everywhere. And the history of the company is I was actually a hedge fund trader in 2009. And at the time, I started reading a lot about the civil rights movement, especially this series by Taylor Branch about Martin Luther King and the entire civil rights movement. And I was so moved by the courage that I read about, but also aware that so many of the injustices they were fighting were are still very much in effect today. And so, you know, that caused me to leave Wall Street and come back to Los Angeles where I grew up. And then basically didn't really know what I was going to do until one weekend sat down and started watching a bunch of food documentaries on Netflix. And one of them talked about neighborhoods that they called food deserts, which were neighborhoods where there was very little access to healthy fresh food and tons and tons of fast food. And for me, that was this sort of clarion call sort of life changing moment where I just thought, you know, healthy food is a human right and it shouldn't be a luxury product. And so, you know, that started a journey now eight years ago, where first we started a nonprofit to work with families on issues of food insecurity and food justice. And that led to the founding of every table. And the core idea of every table is can you create a food production model that is more efficient than a standard restaurant model so that you can bring down the cost of healthy fresh food. And the way we do it is we have a single central kitchen in every major region right now we're in Los Angeles and San Diego and then opening up in New York City this year. And at that kitchen, incredibly talented chefs create fresh, healthy, delicious meals, and then package those meals and grab and go containers, which sounds simple, but it's really the key economic insight which I'll get to. And then they take those meals and our fleet of refrigerated vans to our stores. And, you know, these are two of our stores, but just so you understand the vision, we plan to have over 30,000 of these stores across the entire country. And what's really interesting about these stores is because we have a single central kitchen, we don't have to do any food preparation at the store level. And so the efficiency of the central kitchen and the low operating and capital cost of the stores means that we can make healthy food more affordable and accessible for everyone. But for us, affordability means different things in different neighborhoods. And so while we bring value to all of our customers, we also charge different prices depending on the neighborhood. So if you live in a wealthier neighborhood like Santa Monica, you can buy an incredible meal from us for seven to eight dollars, which is about half the price of fast casual competitors. But if you buy the same meal at one of our stores in Compton or East LA or South LA or Watts, that meal will cost five or six dollars. And it's not charity. It's really about creating a system that is inclusive and works for everyone. And so you can see that this model allows us to drive down the cost of a delicious, fresh, healthy meal to even below McDonald's prices for far more actually food and far more nutrition. A few of the elements of our model is that we started in the beginning employing folks from the neighborhoods that we were most trying to serve. And that led to the creation of the social equity franchise model that Bryce is going to tell you about. So we are an inclusive employer. We have a supply chain that goes direct to farms and local and regional and regenerative farms, often prioritizing BIPOC farmers. And we also do quite a bit of emergency relief business. And this came up during the coronavirus crisis where we make sure to supply meals to homeless shelters. And, you know, we were delivering to 14,000 low income seniors who are trapped in their homes. So every table is really about a systems level change that is about healthy food access. But now with our social equity franchise program, I think we have the potential for much more impact. And I'll turn it over to Bryce to lead on that. Yeah, thanks, Sam. And Susie. So our social equity franchise program is an innovative and transformative model that eliminates two of the biggest barriers to entry for marginalized entrepreneurs of color getting into the franchise system. That access or significant upfront investment which can be anywhere from $50,000 all the way to $2 million and access to traditional and patient capital. So in social equity franchising, every table funds the build out or constructions of stores through our philanthropic partnerships. Thank you for you being the first to step forward and support that. And we've had several several going into these couple years and then offering non capitalized but highly talented entrepreneurs like D, who you're going to hear from later on, comprehensive training, coaching and mentorship through every table university, which is the training portion of the social equity franchise program. So we're really excited about the impact that it's going to make. So I mean, personally, I used to be an entrepreneur at one point, I had dreams in opening a restaurant and went forth and tried to do that and was unsuccessful in obtaining or having access to traditional bank capital. I've had I had about 15 years of experience at that time in the restaurant business and operations. And I went to probably about 10 banks and then also talked to the SBA and was when I was unable to get along. So I've experienced it firsthand. It ended up where I had to open a catering company. Instead, I didn't have access to generational wealth. So I was able to get a small amount of money from from my father to start the catering company. But I was always under capitalized and always looking to get access to capital. The other part that really excites me is that as you see, Maria here, who's one of our candidates candidates, she's been a manager with every table for a few years. But she comes from a background where she had a family of 10. Her father is an entrepreneur, actually. And so she's seen it firsthand. She started working when she was eight years old. And she's always had this dream of being an owner, but never thought that it would be attainable. So that's one of the things that drives me is that being able to make her vision and these vision come to pass. And so where we are today, I'm excited to share that at the end of July, end of July, excuse me, we welcome our first seven candidates, amazing, driven, hardworking folks. Four of them are internal employees. And you'll hear from D later on. She's been with every table almost four or five years as a store manager. And then the other three are external. And so all seven of them have started their leadership, bi-weekly leadership development classes and sessions with me. They're also getting ready to start at the end of the month, our leadership coursework, communication class, which is a part of our leadership coursework. And then the three that are external, I'm excited to say, they've made it through the first stage, which is management training. And they are now managing stores. And so that's going to be a part of their training throughout the process. And so we're really excited to see them become franchisees one day. Thank you. And I'll kick it back to you, Susan. Great. Thank you so much, Bryce and Sam. And now I'd like to bring in D to the conversation. D, you've been managing the store incompetent for the last few years. It's been one of the most successful stores in the company. And then in the very near future, it sounds like the store could be owned and operated by you as well. And just to give the audience a bit of context here, as Bryce mentioned, you know, to own a franchise in the conventional marketplace, it typically it's very cost prohibitive for most entrepreneurs and it needs usually $500,000 to a million dollars of startup costs. And D, you have the business acumen and the lived experience as a senior manager at at Carl's Jr. for I understand 25 years or so. So can you can you share with us a bit more about your background and your experience with every table and perhaps what some of the barriers are that you faced up to this point and really giving us a sense of your vision for the future. Hi, Susie. Thank you. Yes. So I have been in the quick service restaurant industry for over 30 years and 25 years at least have been managing and operating at Carl's Jr.'s restaurant. I have managed multiple locations here in Southern California, managing anywhere from 30 to 40 people, both back in front of the house. Coming with my experience coming over transitioning over to every table has been like a breath of fresh air with coming in with the ease of running this quick and grab boat motto. It has been both rewarded in rewarding and welcoming to me. And the other thing I wanted to point out is that you got to love our mission is to bring and make accessible the fresh affordable food to everyone everywhere. And you got to love that model and that mission. And then just speak to you ask me about the barriers that I had or that I faced up to this point. Should I go on talking about the barriers? That would be great. Yep. Thank you, Susie. Okay, so I can come up with a couple of the barriers that I think I faced up to this point that comes to mind is one is being capital. And then the second one that I will speak to is being the staffing requirements are needed. And this is reflected back at my time with Carl's Jr.'s. One is speaking to the capital. With the capital, we didn't have any programs such as, so to speak, a Carl's Jr.'s university or social equity program. And no one from upper management ever offered me an opportunity to actually own my own franchise restaurant. Or did I even have did I have the funds to manage my own stores? So would that be instead the senior management at that time with Carl's Jr.'s was the only opportunity I see my growth being stopped at. So the other second point is what I wanted to bring up is the staffing requirements or the staffing levels. It was a little bit more complex over at Carl's Jr.'s. And I'll give you a kind of an example of what I'm talking about. Would running a Carl's Jr.'s, let's say the lunch service, you need it anywhere from eight to 10 staff members. And that to run a successful lunch service for that time, for the restaurant at that time. But the challenges of keeping a staff requirement up, having that level, being able to run, you needed to have the 20 to 30 people as a whole was very challenging. And it was always a lot of hiring required, a lot of training required. So that was a lot of challenges or some of the challenges that I faced for staffing. And then what I would like to say transitioning, transitioning over to every table, that is scaled way down where you only really for a lunch service really need two people. And you can see where all this brightness and calls go down when you're operating a quick revenue every table unit. Great. Thank you so much, Dee. And just wanted to let the audience know that the Dee is actually joining us from the store. And she's taking a break from her management responsibilities to have this conversation. So she's actually in an every table store right now. So you can see a little bit of that in the background. And maybe to close out your story here, what can you share with the audience about your vision for the future in terms of your role and what you envision going forward? Well, thank you, Susie again. Just being a woman of color and to be offered such an opportunity as this to be my own over every table. I don't think I've seen that vision when I came in. However, I did love this whole concept of every table. And I love everything that we are about. But looking to venture, I'm looking just to continue on the journey and get into making those steps and get into my first store to operate and just serving my community this delicious and healthy meal that we have here every table. Great. Thank you. Maybe turning it back to Sam and Bryce. Now, what would you say is important for investors, philanthropists and other industry actors to understand about the importance of embedding racial equity into your strategy and how it can be a game changer? Maybe we'll start with Sam with you and how you thought through embedding this as you started the business and perhaps how has it supported your vision going forward? Yeah. And I think the way I would answer that is our company was really built on principles of racial equity. And I think the way we approach racial equity is this idea of inclusivity. And can we have a world that works for everyone and includes everyone? And I think that sort of idea of inclusivity has actually become incredibly powerful for both our company as well as our investors in our access to capital. And so, I'm a guy that comes from a white Ivy League hedge fund background, which is about as sort of white privileges you can get. But I bring a lot to the table sort of with that background. And you know, Bryce is an incredible operator with a tremendous nonprofit background. And Dee herself is, you know, basically the best store manager in Los Angeles. And so, you know, I think it's this idea of sort of, you know, not having an us against them mentality, but all joining together in a singular mission. And I think what's really powerful for every table is, you know, that that is true with our investors as well. So we, you know, we have this incredible market opportunity to really, you know, basically make, you know, the next healthy fast food brand bigger than McDonald's. And so we have investors that are pure venture capitalists. But we also have a lot of impact investors. And we have a lot of foundations who see that we can, you know, that we have the potential to make a more just and equitable world. And so, you know, I think the good news about sort of embedding, you know, racial equity is that, you know, while there are some sort of crazies out there, there's a lot of people that really agree with this mission and from all over the spectrum. And so once you sort of are overt and forward about that as the core of your company, you know, support for that comes from, you know, places you couldn't even imagine. Thank you, Sam. And Bryce, did you want to add to that in terms of your experience as an entrepreneur yourself and just that how perhaps every table's racial equity lens has really perhaps been different or any surprises and any perhaps any challenges that the company has encountered in trying this bold vision of embedding this into both its values and operations and everything that you all do? Yeah, thanks, Susie. I'd like to start with the first part of what you asked about what would I what would we ask philanthropists and, you know, investors, et cetera to really think about it and starting with a quote, but Dr. King says, you know, life's most persistent and urgent question is what are we doing for others? So it's in that spirit that my ask to everyone would be to reflect on the urgency and the cause the last 16 months ago for social change, right? And in this country and across the world. And for those folks who have the means to continue to be steadfast, to be courageous and really be bold on the investments that they would make into a racial equity. It's it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. And so my thing is that that's not forget where we were last year. And we knew a lot of us knew that these were issues that happened that were happening and have been happening for generations and decades. And so let's take that energy. Let's not run out of energy, I would say. And let's continue to be bold and making these investments towards racial equity and investments in the world that we want to see. So that would that's what I would say. And I think on the teller that the challenge is, is like I said, a lot of times, because it is hard work, and it takes time to really see change. Some people run out of, you know, to use that, use the example of a marathon. Some people run out of energy at the 12 month mark, 12 mile mark, shall I say. And so we got we can't keep going back to we don't want to go back there. We want to see those strides, but it's going to take every one of us. And so those folks, like you said, the players that have the means to access the capital, the resources, information and knowledge, I would just say, Hey, continue making those investments, and let's make this world a better place for the generations to come. Thank you, Bryce. In terms of, I think a lot of us, and certainly the audience here is really clear around the moral imperative of embedding racial equity into into businesses. And but then there are those around kind of more tangential to the conversation, you know, who are wondering, you know, is there a business case or what, perhaps what elements of having such a strategy might inform or enhance the business model and and actually drive return financial returns, in addition to social justice. So would love to hear, would love to hear from me, Sam, you can start us off just around some of the elements of your racial equity approach that might again influence positive business outcomes. Yeah, I mean, it's actually the thing that I'm sort of most excited about is the, you know, win, win, win partnership that we've put together. And what I mean is there's sort of three legs to the social equity franchise partnership. There's the foundations who provide this capital in the form of grants and program related investments. And I do think that we offer value to them for, you know, true systems level change on some of the issues that are most important to them. And then for D, there is the ability to own her own business. And so there's incredible sort of economic benefit there. But for the company, every table, there's plenty of benefits as well as specifically, you know, it's the idea is that, you know, ownership and capitalism does harness this, this deep desire and drive. And so, you know, our belief is that our stores will be better run and more successful with owner operators as opposed to hourly workers. And also, you know, we get to grow our store footprint in our brand through the help of capital from our foundation partners. And in general, I think that customers, you know, and this is customers everywhere, you know, Compton and Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades are really looking to support companies that are making positive change in the world. And so we get sort of a brand benefit from it as well. So I think that, you know, there's a tremendous amount of value. And in my view, it's sort of equivalently shared between those parties, which is I think makes for a perfect partnership. Great. Thank you. And Bryce, did you, Bryce or Dee, do you have anything to add in terms of being, you know, running, running, running the business and being day to day in running the store? Any, any additional points that you wanted to add to what Sam outlined? I'll see if Dee has something I have points, but I want to make sure that she's able to, to share if she, if she has something she wants to say. Well, um, well, the experience has been for me, like over the last three years, that not only, you know, being able to operate your own store and franchise, but there's a need for what we're doing here. I mean, there's definitely a need in our communities that don't have these accessible, healthier meals in their neighborhood. And I get day on and day out. I see that my guests have face to face every day that faces a lot of health challenges or wanting to eat better, you know, maybe lose some weight. So I get all those stories and to be a part, just to be a part of something that I see making a change makes me proud. And just to be afforded to have, to be able to operate my own restaurant someday, it's just a privilege, you know, something that I, you know, didn't see prior coming here, but I was directed here, I believe, for that reason. So with all my experience and skills that I have, it's just really helping me, you know, be able to step up and, you know, take the challenge and just so grateful to the investors who have been invested in us to become our own owners and to be, you know, running in our own restaurant at some point. Great. Thank you. Bryce, did you want to chime in? You mentioned you had a couple of thoughts. Yeah, I'll just share one. From a business perspective, like Dee said, particularly in underserved communities, there's a huge need and market and so many people have ignored it. And so business wise, it makes sense from a, if you look at the country and you look at the exorbitant healthcare costs that we have, it's also, and I can also, we can also make a point that we really need to be visionary and bold around making investments on a preventative end. And so what we offer every table, not only as Dee and we talked about from an economic social equity standpoint, but if you think about our food and what it does and what Dee says, the stories that she hears from customers and the impact that it has on people individually health wise and how we can ripple that effect. Our vision is Sam talked about 30,000 stores. I mean, that's the business case right there, that you're going to eliminate, be a part of eliminating some of those healthcare costs and then also economically putting people in the space where they're economically mobile, have ownership and then creating generational wealth that they can share with their families and then the community at large. And so I would just close with that. Great. Thank you so much. And any, in closing, and we've got a couple of minutes left here, any closing thoughts around perhaps an action or a tactic or an approach that you might recommend others think about? Perhaps it's something you have embedded within the every table business model that has really helped amplify your approach to achieving racial equities or something that a closing thought that you might want to share with our audience, something for them to take away? I mean, I can take a stab at that, but I think what I would say is like there's a lot of reasons that food deserts and food inequality exists. And every table, I do believe has, you know, frankly, you know, the best or the only sort of answer to that on massive scale in the country. And the thing about it is that it requires, you know, scale and investment to get there. And so that's what I would, I would sort of echo what Bryce said, which is like, be bold, because we've got, you know, a vision sort of in front of us for a more just and equitable food system that makes healthy food affordable and accessible to everyone everywhere and empowers tens of thousands of entrepreneurs to own their own business. And so, you know, and it's really thanks to the foresight of people like Acumen, people like Kellogg Foundation very early on, who really saw that vision and decided to back it up with capital, even, you know, amidst a philanthropic world that had historically been really binary between, you know, nonprofits are good and for profits are bad. And so we do think the world is changing in a really important way. And that combination of for profit and foundation capital is really, I think, what's needed to really change the world in a way that is possible and within reach. Great. Thank you, Sam. That's a great way to close us out. So just in summary, thank you panelists really appreciate your insights, Dee and Bryce and Sam. And in closing, just wanted to recap that every table really does embody a dedicated commitment to racial equity, health and economic justice. And as you've heard, their franchising model is radical. It's forging a new path for innovative and equitable financing that we can all learn from and support in different ways. So we hope that this conversation has provided an urgent call for more actionable investments in entrepreneurs and communities of color. And again, we really appreciate everyone's participation to stay up to date and learn more about every table social equity franchise model you can visit their website at everytable.com backslash university and really wanted to thank everyone for joining us today. And hope you all enjoy the rest of the virtual convening. Thank you.