Good Food: Jeffrey Brown of Brown's Super Stores
According to the USDA, 36.5 million Americans live in low-income areas with limited access to a supermarket. Lack of access to healthy foods has an enormous effect on health, with an estimated cost of $160 billion annually.
Enter Brown's Super Stores, founded and run by Jeffrey Brown, a fourth-generation grocery store owner. Imagine a supermarket with a community room for meetings, a health clinic, and even a credit union. He operates 13 supermarkets in the Philadelphia area, mostly located in underserved communities, often in food deserts where residents don’t have access to healthy foods. Brown’s Super Stores put the supermarket at the center of the community. They have created over 3,000 jobs - and as part of a community-driven initiative, 700 of their employees are formerly incarcerated.
Jeffrey shares how the right balance for any business is more than just maximizing profits. "The social part of our business is not flexible," says Jeffrey. "Generally speaking, there a lot of rewards of doing good."