Ashoka
Reviving the Grocery Trade in America’s Food Deserts
More than 23 million Americans live in places where good food is relatively scarce and expensive. The dominant commercial models of the grocery business prefer suburbs to cities, and major retail chains to local grocers. Katie Plohocky is an entrepreneur from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who is building alternative supply chains to get healthy food to people surviving in “food deserts.” Her Healthy Community Store Initiative uses a variety of retail strategies, such as micro stores and mobile shops, plus a wholesale distribution system, to reinvent and reintroduce the neighborhood grocer. We asked her how she got started and how it all works.
Ashoka insight
The opportunities are everywhere, producing or sourcing or connecting with local farms, value added processing, for example, and then of course reaching the customers. We are working on a toolkit to help others open small stores that we can supply and provide mentorship