Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. I'm Gammy and this is Positively gam.
Speaker 1: Last season, I did an episode on eating rights and
Speaker 1: food inequities. This time, I want to further the conversation
Speaker 1: and discuss what is being done to address this problem
Speaker 1: in underrepresented neighborhoods. I'm excited to have food justice veteran
Speaker 1: Bryce flew Ellen joined me on today's episode. So let's
Speaker 1: get into it. Bryce flew Ellen is a community change
Speaker 1: maker and has fought for food justice and social equity
Speaker 1: for more than twenty years, developing and implementing strategic programs
Speaker 1: at Starbucks, Magic Johnson Enterprises, and the American Heart Association
Speaker 1: to drive systemic change to benefit underserved populations and communities.
Speaker 1: He joined Every Table to lead its pioneering social equity
Speaker 1: franchise program. Welcome Bryce to Positively gam. Hey, good to
Speaker 1: see you, glad to be here, Thank you, glad to
Speaker 1: joined us today. I'm so excited to have you because
Speaker 1: I actually heard about Every Table first on Spectrum one
Speaker 1: News and that's what brought you. Yeah, I brought this
Speaker 1: to my attention. But before we really get into it,
Speaker 1: let's just start by telling me everyone, what is every Table? Yeah?
Speaker 1: That's great, gam I mean every Table was a Los
Speaker 1: Angeles based mission driven food company whose mission is to
Speaker 1: transform the food system and make nutritious food accessible and
Speaker 1: available to everyone everywhere. Wow, So what kind of food
Speaker 1: are they selling? It's a company, but is it a restaurant? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's great. I mean we serve chef prepared food every
Speaker 1: day and so it's grabbing go. So we have an
Speaker 1: interesting model. So all of our food is made in
Speaker 1: a commissary fresh every day. We have a thirty thousand
Speaker 1: foot commissary in the city of Vernon, which is right
Speaker 1: behind downtown l A. All the food is cooked, prepared, packaged, uh,
Speaker 1: and distributed into So we have several different channels where
Speaker 1: people can interact and consume our food. We have restaurants
Speaker 1: stores uh here. To date, we have twenty three in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles right now. We hope to have sixty by
Speaker 1: the end of the year. Uh. And then we also
Speaker 1: have a subscription service, so Gammy, that really took off
Speaker 1: during COVID Go back to two thousand nineteen. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people like to forget, but in two
Speaker 1: thousand nineteen, right before the pandemic hit, we had started
Speaker 1: a subscription. We had about two hundred customers and now
Speaker 1: year today we have about five to six thousand. We
Speaker 1: also have a food service division, so we have a
Speaker 1: number of contracts with the Department of Aging where we're
Speaker 1: servicing and serving seniors. We have UH Santa Monica College
Speaker 1: where we get food to food and secure teenagers and
Speaker 1: in college students. And then we also have smart vending
Speaker 1: machines that are in businesses as well, so we have
Speaker 1: our We're trying to be eat the customer wherever they
Speaker 1: are again, where they are. This is fantastic. This is fantastic.
Speaker 1: How did you even find out about Every Table? Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is serendipitous and you appreciate this. It speaks to
Speaker 1: the power of relationships, right and that we don't do
Speaker 1: anything without the support of others. I actually met Sam
Speaker 1: polk Or, a CEO and founder when I was working
Speaker 1: at American Heart Association and previous to Every Table, he
Speaker 1: had a nonprofit called Feast provide a nutrition education in
Speaker 1: the under serve areas in South l A. The school
Speaker 1: and program that I ran through American Heart Association. I'm
Speaker 1: a chef by trade, so I was teaching young kids
Speaker 1: how to eat healthy, how to prepare it in a
Speaker 1: healthy manner, and he had started Feast at the same
Speaker 1: high school manual Arts. So one of the community of
Speaker 1: recent members within the school sent me a white paper
Speaker 1: and say, hey, what do you think about this program?
Speaker 1: They want to use one of our bungalows. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: you know it's needed. Tell them if you ever need somebody,
Speaker 1: I'll come and do a demo whatever it is and
Speaker 1: talk nutrition. And he brought me in and we built
Speaker 1: a relationship there, Gammy, and so then you fast forward
Speaker 1: two thousand and fifteen, he started every table. So Feast
Speaker 1: was the impetus of every table because a lot of
Speaker 1: the participants would say, hey, we would love to eat healthier, saying,
Speaker 1: but everything in our community is fast food stuff that
Speaker 1: you can get from the liquor store. Plus the fast
Speaker 1: food hits our price point. It's convenient. If you can
Speaker 1: make something that can compete with that is a healthier
Speaker 1: then we would consume it. And so he created every
Speaker 1: table and I said, he congratulations. So then you fast
Speaker 1: forward again. Gave me a call and said I have
Speaker 1: this social equity franchise program that I've had a vision
Speaker 1: for and kind of started raising money in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eighteen. Now is the time to coundify it, scale it.
Speaker 1: I think you'd be the right person and and it
Speaker 1: was right in alignment with my values, Gammy, And it
Speaker 1: was really an opportunity. As you know, there's so many
Speaker 1: problems in this world, but what we need is solutions. Rightly,
Speaker 1: this is a piece of that solution to provide healthier
Speaker 1: food and more nutritious food in areas across the country,
Speaker 1: and at a price point like our meals are between
Speaker 1: five to nine dollars, Like you're not gonna get that anywhere. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's this is fantastic. This is just fantastic. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to share a statistic that I found to be
Speaker 1: pretty profound and not surprising. According to the Annual Business Survey,
Speaker 1: only about eighteen percent of US businesses where minority owned
Speaker 1: in Why do you think that's so low? I mean,
Speaker 1: my my assessment of it would be lack of funding.
Speaker 1: You know, as African Americans particularly, we're not able to
Speaker 1: secure loans. Can you speak to that? And I think
Speaker 1: you hit the nail on the head. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: a couple of reasons, but that's one of the main
Speaker 1: is that access to capital traditional capital, bank capital, but
Speaker 1: also and This is part of you know, why I'm
Speaker 1: so proud to be, you know, leading this social equity
Speaker 1: franchise program is that also, you know, generational wealth, A
Speaker 1: lot of minorities, particularly black people, we don't come from
Speaker 1: generational wealth. We can lean on a family member. I
Speaker 1: think I heard Jeff Bezos say I think it was
Speaker 1: him who said, hey, my parents gave me three four
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars to start Amazon, and so that is
Speaker 1: a lot of money that I have a lot of
Speaker 1: money if we don't have access to that, right, and
Speaker 1: we could be here forever talking about the reasons why right,
Speaker 1: systemic issues and racism. But I think that is a
Speaker 1: big piece. And then the last I've seen also that
Speaker 1: a part of this is like not having access or
Speaker 1: mentors or people that you know that in your circle.
Speaker 1: I actually was an entrepreneur have my own catering business
Speaker 1: for eight years, and I had to borrow money small
Speaker 1: amount of money from my father and then I had
Speaker 1: to use credit cards. But as I look back on
Speaker 1: that experience, you know, I was under capitalized. I didn't
Speaker 1: have the working capital that would help get me through
Speaker 1: those times. You know where you're in the red, right,
Speaker 1: you just don't have the money coming in. So those
Speaker 1: are a couple of three of the issues. But I
Speaker 1: think that what you identified as a big thing is like,
Speaker 1: we don't have that access to additional bank capital. A
Speaker 1: lot of banks don't want to take risk because we
Speaker 1: may not have collateral, we may not have the homeownership
Speaker 1: numbers and and things of that nature. Right, But I
Speaker 1: think you you talked about mentorship, and I think mentorship
Speaker 1: is very important too. We don't have the resources, but
Speaker 1: we also don't have people to set an example for us,
Speaker 1: people that we can go to for advice and that
Speaker 1: we see in our own families a lot of times,
Speaker 1: So that's important too. Now you're working on something to
Speaker 1: directly combat this issue. You were brought on as the
Speaker 1: new executive director at Every Table Social Equity Franchise Program
Speaker 1: to build out a team to support their new innovative
Speaker 1: social equity franchise program. Can you explain that. I think
Speaker 1: you call it the Every Table University. Yeah, every Table,
Speaker 1: I'll explain it to you. Try to make it plain
Speaker 1: and simple as I can. Every Table University. Is this
Speaker 1: the training program for the social equity franchise program. And
Speaker 1: so if you look at your Aditionally, gammy franchising a
Speaker 1: lot of industries has been an industry of privilege where
Speaker 1: you had to access to capital to get in the game.
Speaker 1: On the low end, you need to have at least
Speaker 1: fifty thousand in a lot of cases. On the high end,
Speaker 1: if you think about a McDonald's single franchise McDonald's, you
Speaker 1: have to have about one to two million dollars of
Speaker 1: your own money and and a net worth about a
Speaker 1: half a million as well to start a franchise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the McDonald's, and obviously that's on the high end. They're
Speaker 1: one of the most successful franchise companies in the history, right,
Speaker 1: But that's just one unit, and even fifty thousand on
Speaker 1: the low end, that's a lot of money for people.
Speaker 1: As we talked about earlier of not having right. So
Speaker 1: we understood that the intersection between food and equity, and
Speaker 1: I listened to your last podcast where you had you
Speaker 1: talked about food injustice and food and equity, food apartheid,
Speaker 1: that you know, we understand the intersection between that and
Speaker 1: economic inequity as well, right, And so at the heart
Speaker 1: of what we're trying to do is transform the food system.
Speaker 1: So we have a vision to also transform in the
Speaker 1: franchise system and put ownership opportunities in the hands of
Speaker 1: people of color who haven't traditionally been able to get
Speaker 1: in the game. So that is the simple vision of it.
Speaker 1: Now here's the beauty of this program. You do not
Speaker 1: have to have any money up front, no money up front,
Speaker 1: There's no strings behind this, nothing hidden behind this. I'll
Speaker 1: explain it to you. So we are looking for individuals
Speaker 1: who have not, like I said, had an opportunity, have
Speaker 1: not been able to get in the game. Do not
Speaker 1: have to have five to ten years business experience, but
Speaker 1: maybe they have one to two. They've been a supervisor,
Speaker 1: they've been an assistant manager, They've always had dreams of
Speaker 1: owning their own business but thought it was out of reach.
Speaker 1: You have a hospitality mindset that you really care about
Speaker 1: taking care of guests, and we can teach the other things.
Speaker 1: Because one of the things about our our brand GAMM
Speaker 1: is that, like I said earlier, all the food is
Speaker 1: pre made and made before it comes into store, so
Speaker 1: you don't have to run a kitchen. You're basically have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to really Greek guests and learn the business
Speaker 1: and learn how to grow the business. And so if
Speaker 1: you go through a five stage interview process and if
Speaker 1: you get accepted into the program, you'll be trained for
Speaker 1: eight to trained for eight to twelve months, you'll become
Speaker 1: a manager, and then at the end of that training
Speaker 1: you will have the opportunity to own a franchise. If
Speaker 1: once you own it, you sign onto a franchise agreement
Speaker 1: and you pay us back over five years of the
Speaker 1: build out costs and every table, which is between two
Speaker 1: hundred seventy five to three hundred thousand, but you do
Speaker 1: not start paying that back until the business is profitable
Speaker 1: and it's patient. You know, the payments are non linear,
Speaker 1: meaning like the first year you're you are received positive
Speaker 1: cash flow, the payments are really low, and then once
Speaker 1: you pay it off, you own the business outright. There
Speaker 1: is no collateral required either. Games it's almost too good
Speaker 1: to be true. I get that. Like, so what determined
Speaker 1: what profitable is? Yeah, that's a great question. So we
Speaker 1: look at having at least eight months of positive EBADA,
Speaker 1: which stands for earnings before interest, tax and appreciation. So
Speaker 1: once you get your franchise and you start to receive
Speaker 1: a positive cash flow, at least you know, six to
Speaker 1: eight months in a row. Then you start paying back
Speaker 1: those payments on on the loan that we give and
Speaker 1: this patient capital. So I'll explain to you how we
Speaker 1: were able to do this, Gabby, which is really transformative. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it seems like like companies like McDonald's and some
Speaker 1: of these other franchises have plenty of money and it
Speaker 1: just seems like there's no reason why other companies shouldn't
Speaker 1: be doing this. So so continue and explain to us.
Speaker 1: But you have to have the vision and you have
Speaker 1: to have the courageous leadership to want to do it. Yes,
Speaker 1: because you're investing in people who have been divested from
Speaker 1: for years and almost in centuries. So we are. Sam
Speaker 1: was able through his experience at feast of the nonprofit
Speaker 1: that he had, he reached search what's called p r I,
Speaker 1: which stands for program related investments. Foundations have assets of
Speaker 1: about a trillion dollars right all the foundations in this country.
Speaker 1: They usually invest They usually give out grants. You know,
Speaker 1: grants are not you know right off, what they have
Speaker 1: they can do investments means they can actually invest in
Speaker 1: your company, public benefit corporation, or social enterprise like we
Speaker 1: are from a tax code perspective and we have a
Speaker 1: mission which is to transform the food system and then
Speaker 1: with the Social Equity Franchise program, to provide more opportunities
Speaker 1: for people of color who haven't had that. So we
Speaker 1: started going to foundations back in two thousand and eighteen
Speaker 1: and received and a small investment from Kellogg Foundation for
Speaker 1: about one point five million, and through that experience just
Speaker 1: continue to do that into the year to date, we've
Speaker 1: been able to raise almost seven million in a mix
Speaker 1: of program related investments and then grants. The thing about
Speaker 1: program related investments gamming is that typically to interest rate,
Speaker 1: the foundation's charge is anywhere from zero percent at nothing
Speaker 1: or two. So it's paid its patient capital, and it's
Speaker 1: capital they want to get out into the free market
Speaker 1: and the hopes that they'll invest that they'll get their
Speaker 1: investment back and then they'll keep investing that money, right,
Speaker 1: and it's an alignment whatever that foundation's values are. So
Speaker 1: with Kellogg, they have a real, you know, big push
Speaker 1: around equity, particularly around food equity. One of our other
Speaker 1: investors and and Berg really into providing economic opportunities for
Speaker 1: people of color who have been disadvantaged. So that's how
Speaker 1: we're able to you know, create this opportunity for this program,
Speaker 1: and we just see it as it's going to be
Speaker 1: central to who we are as a company in a
Speaker 1: large amount. And so you'll look up four or five
Speaker 1: years from now, Gammy and Division, and my job is
Speaker 1: four or five years now, we'll have sixty or plus,
Speaker 1: you know owners who will be black and brown people.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So how many people have gone through the
Speaker 1: program so far? Yeah, we currently have six that are
Speaker 1: in the program. They are anticipated to become franchise owners
Speaker 1: this summer, late July, early August, so they would be
Speaker 1: setting this is the history into making. They would be
Speaker 1: the first six, and then we have another four anticipated
Speaker 1: fore and then you know, we have we're raising a
Speaker 1: significant amount of money. I can't get full full details,
Speaker 1: but we're in the process of raving raising another significant
Speaker 1: and out of amount of money that would help us
Speaker 1: have about sixty to seventy associaequity franchise owners in the
Speaker 1: next four or five years. Wow. So but this is
Speaker 1: just right here in Los Angeles, right yeah, right now,
Speaker 1: it's in l A where we have plans as a company.
Speaker 1: We're actually going to New York this summer and about
Speaker 1: a month or so, so our plans and our vision
Speaker 1: is that once we get New York up and running,
Speaker 1: to try to take this program to New York three
Speaker 1: or twenty probably early, and so then we would have
Speaker 1: social equity franchise program in New York. But right now
Speaker 1: to your main question is in Los Angeles and he
Speaker 1: plans to go to Baltimore. Hey, you put it out there,
Speaker 1: you put it out there. I mean, we are testiperate,
Speaker 1: we are desperate in Baltimore. We are in Baltimore. I
Speaker 1: mean we have plans. You know, we're gonna go to
Speaker 1: New York and then we have plans to go you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's called Baltimore. I think about it. I love Baltimore.
Speaker 1: I went to school in the d C. So I
Speaker 1: have love for you know, Yeah, Baltimore needs help. Multimore
Speaker 1: needs help because this feels like something that other businesses
Speaker 1: and other companies could be part of. I mean, I
Speaker 1: hope is that we do have people who copycat where
Speaker 1: we're doing. There's some folks out in the marketplace that
Speaker 1: are doing some things similar. You know, I'm a part
Speaker 1: of you know, I read the Trades National Restaurant magazine,
Speaker 1: and there are a few smaller brands or brands of
Speaker 1: our size that are doing it. There's also I know
Speaker 1: Taco Bell has created something similar for their franchising as well.
Speaker 1: But I think to your point, we hope we wipe.
Speaker 1: People see this and they're inspired and they want to
Speaker 1: do it and implement and in their industry, not only
Speaker 1: a food but across the board. Because I know you
Speaker 1: you and I understand that, Hey, you talked about earlier
Speaker 1: the ownership piece of minorities owning businesses and the number
Speaker 1: what it was, so we know that there's a huge
Speaker 1: opportunity and a huge gap. And I just think that,
Speaker 1: like I said, it takes peak courageous leadership. It takes
Speaker 1: leadership that's committed after the moment. I say that again,
Speaker 1: committed after the moment, because as you know, during the
Speaker 1: pandemic and after the uprisings, there were a lot of
Speaker 1: people who said that they wanted to do certain things
Speaker 1: and they made commitments. But I say, hey, after the commitment,
Speaker 1: you still have to where is everybody. You gotta do
Speaker 1: the work. You gotta do the work. So we're committed
Speaker 1: to We're putting in a lot of work and a
Speaker 1: lot of sweat equity to make sure that we follow
Speaker 1: through on our promise and we create economic mobility and
Speaker 1: wealth for those people that are being the program. Now,
Speaker 1: there was one young lady that I saw that was
Speaker 1: in the news clip that I saw. D. How is
Speaker 1: she doing? Where does she stand with the program right now?
Speaker 1: Because she was close, she was close to graduating and
Speaker 1: becoming an owner? Is that correct? D? Isn't that six? Okay? Okay?
Speaker 1: So let me tell you about DA. I mean D
Speaker 1: had She and embodies what we talked about and what
Speaker 1: we want here at every table. And she has actually
Speaker 1: had a tremendous impact not only on me, but in
Speaker 1: the store that she opened up and that she's opening
Speaker 1: and running now and she's been there since this inception
Speaker 1: in Compton. She is that every Table store in company. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I would say that, but D has done. D
Speaker 1: has created a community, She has grown that store. If
Speaker 1: you go to that store and you meet people, they
Speaker 1: will talk about who D is. They'll ask for D.
Speaker 1: So she is what we want and what we look
Speaker 1: for it and I can't wait until she becomes an owner.
Speaker 1: She's she opened the store in Compton about four years
Speaker 1: ago as a company owned store. But we had just
Speaker 1: talked about her as a team like D is that story.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you walk into that store, she greets
Speaker 1: you with a smile. She you know, make sure that
Speaker 1: you're taken care of, make sure you walk out that
Speaker 1: you're going to walk out and tell somebody else you
Speaker 1: need to go to every table, not just for the food,
Speaker 1: but just for the whole experience that hospitality and treating
Speaker 1: like treating people like they're in your own home. And
Speaker 1: so I said, a lot of people in the community
Speaker 1: when they think of the Competence Store and every table,
Speaker 1: they think of D. And so I'm really proud of,
Speaker 1: you know, how she's grown in the program throughout training.
Speaker 1: But like I said, she's had a tremendous impact on
Speaker 1: me and every table since she's been here. And so
Speaker 1: my job and the job of other folks within the
Speaker 1: company is to make sure that she becomes a franchise
Speaker 1: owner and that she's successful in that, and we're really
Speaker 1: able to help her see her vision. I mean, she
Speaker 1: has a vision of you know, creating a legacy for
Speaker 1: her family. Oh man, this just I mean, I had
Speaker 1: the biggest smile on my face. This just makes my
Speaker 1: heart feel good. I think I'm gonna have to go
Speaker 1: visit D and I'm gonna have to go stop by everything.
Speaker 1: Can you describe some of the meals that are offered? Wow? So, Gammy,
Speaker 1: we have hot bowls. I just want to tell you
Speaker 1: about one and then I'll get into the whole menu.
Speaker 1: So we have a chicken creole gravy bowl that was
Speaker 1: actually created in partnership one of my favorite restaurants in
Speaker 1: l a Posting Beam Ball Hills area, right next to
Speaker 1: the Debbie Allen's dance studio. So we created that meal
Speaker 1: last Black History that's February with chef Ron Cleveland over there,
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you've ever been there, but
Speaker 1: I mean this meal is, you know, roasted chicken with
Speaker 1: a creole gravy collar, greens, brown rice, red beans. This
Speaker 1: is an eight dollar meal if you went to the
Speaker 1: Posting Beam or to another restaurant. This is like meals,
Speaker 1: so you can get it from us from eight dollars
Speaker 1: six to eight dollars. So we have hot bowls. We
Speaker 1: also have salads. We have this free got this got
Speaker 1: a salad, this chicken gotta salad. That's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: We also have breakfast items and then we also carry juice.
Speaker 1: We have started our juice line last April, so we
Speaker 1: have our own fresh juice. We have a beet juice
Speaker 1: that's delicious. I know when I was I love beats. Beats, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love beats. I know when I was growing up,
Speaker 1: I could I could not stand beats. Most people don't
Speaker 1: like beats, but I love beats. So this beat juice
Speaker 1: is amazing. And then we have desserts, some healthy desserts,
Speaker 1: vegan cookies, some healthy snacks, you know, chips and snacks,
Speaker 1: so we have a variety of meals that for everybody. Well,
Speaker 1: this is just amazing. And I'm telling you you can
Speaker 1: tell d that I'm gonna come and visit her and
Speaker 1: in her store. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: I'm just so excited about the program. And I was
Speaker 1: gonna tell you that, you know, I think that you
Speaker 1: you should be doing your own line of food products.
Speaker 1: I still got time, I still have time. But I
Speaker 1: think what you're doing now, right now is so impactful
Speaker 1: to the community that like you were made for this.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Yeah, and this is this work is
Speaker 1: so important. So thank you so much, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Now I want you to do one last thing though,
Speaker 1: I want you to go over once again. What are
Speaker 1: the things that you are looking for people that could
Speaker 1: qualify for this kind of program. Yeah. Yeah, we're looking
Speaker 1: for somebody who has at least one to two years
Speaker 1: of retail, restaurant hospitality operations experience. Someone that could do
Speaker 1: you know, can commit to eight to a months of training.
Speaker 1: This is paid. So the training program is that you're
Speaker 1: hired in as the store manager. You go through store
Speaker 1: management training which is about a month, then you're placed
Speaker 1: in the store. You're managing that store, and then we
Speaker 1: fold in leadership coursework, so we have coursework from financial
Speaker 1: management all the way to communications, entrepreneurial mindset. We're also
Speaker 1: looking for someone who, like I said, really cares about
Speaker 1: customers and people and the other stuff we can train, right,
Speaker 1: we'll train you on that. So and another thing is
Speaker 1: someone who wants to be a hands on owner because
Speaker 1: we are that we do. We are a model that
Speaker 1: we don't have kitchens. We can run a store with
Speaker 1: something between one to three people, so which means that
Speaker 1: you will be ringing up people, you'll be greeting guests.
Speaker 1: So it's not like a McDonald's where you know that
Speaker 1: person would usually hire two managers or so and never
Speaker 1: see an owner working in this owner would you know
Speaker 1: as an owner, you'll be working in the store. And
Speaker 1: our hopes is also gammy, is that this will create
Speaker 1: will create a pathway from multiple franchise units. So people
Speaker 1: who are successful in managing one. I think the the
Speaker 1: people like d and other people that are in the
Speaker 1: program who have been with every table for a few years,
Speaker 1: I think once they become owners, I think they could
Speaker 1: have to three four Yet, so this is that's that's
Speaker 1: the main thing we're looking for. And that entrepreneur of spirit,
Speaker 1: like that spirit that says, hey, this is mine. I
Speaker 1: noticed is the franchise and I'm working with every table,
Speaker 1: but I want to take ownership. I have ideas that
Speaker 1: I want to bring to the table. I want to
Speaker 1: also be a part of this company growing and I'm
Speaker 1: an integral part of that. So good stuff, Rice, thank
Speaker 1: you so much, no problem, thank you. Now it's time
Speaker 1: for the segment. Wouldn't you like to know before you go, Bryce,
Speaker 1: I have a couple of questions I'd like you to answer.
Speaker 1: What book are you currently reading. I'm currently reading the
Speaker 1: book called The City of Segregation, A hundred Years for
Speaker 1: the Fight for a public housing in Los Angeles. So
Speaker 1: it's really important and insightful too as we talk about
Speaker 1: systemic issues, whether it's food and equity, economic and equity, housing.
Speaker 1: I mean, the housing piece is a big part of
Speaker 1: a lot of the struggles that that folks of color,
Speaker 1: black folks especially face today. So a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't think of Los Angeles being segregated, but this book written, yeah,
Speaker 1: it should tells you everything about it. What is one
Speaker 1: thing you want to get off your chest. I want
Speaker 1: to encourage people to have more intellectual humility. So what
Speaker 1: that means, Gammy, is that I want to see more
Speaker 1: of people saying, hey, I'm open to listening to other
Speaker 1: people's ideas and opinions. I'm also open to the fact
Speaker 1: that I don't know everything, and there's so much to
Speaker 1: know in this world, and so I'm constantly trying to learn,
Speaker 1: listening to different perspectives. And I think if people understood that, hey,
Speaker 1: no matter how much you know, this is a big
Speaker 1: world with a lot of information, there's more that you
Speaker 1: don't know. And so being really humble about that and
Speaker 1: moving forward in that spirit that thank you. What's a
Speaker 1: mottel that you live by? It takes a village. It's
Speaker 1: about the collective. So if you think about all the
Speaker 1: problems that we have today or that we hear about,
Speaker 1: none of this is going to change unless we come
Speaker 1: together as a collective and understanding. It takes all of us.
Speaker 1: Just like the Social Achuity Franchise program, like, we wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to do it without the support of our
Speaker 1: philanthropic partners, and they come to the table and said,
Speaker 1: here's an issue that we're aligned with. We want to
Speaker 1: help you, even though you're a corporate company. We want
Speaker 1: to come to the table and see how we can help.
Speaker 1: So my motto has always been my ancestors and my
Speaker 1: elders raised me that way, like, hey, it's a village.
Speaker 1: I love that, love it. And where can people find
Speaker 1: you on social media? Brace Yeah, mainly on Instagram under
Speaker 1: a chef underscore Bryce and then you can also find
Speaker 1: me on Facebook under Bryce Fluellen F l U E
Speaker 1: L E N. So those are my more active platforms.
Speaker 1: Thank you for all that you're doing, Thank you for
Speaker 1: inviting me to your platform, and congratulations on all you've
Speaker 1: been doing as well. Thank you so much. Congratulations keep
Speaker 1: doing what you're doing. You're doing a great job. My
Speaker 1: one takeaway from this conversation is that I'm excited to
Speaker 1: learn about a company willing to invest in people and
Speaker 1: not just profit. Kudos to every Table. Let's hope that
Speaker 1: other companies follow suit with social equity franchise programs that
Speaker 1: continue to offer ownership opportunities for minorities. And that's our
Speaker 1: show for this week. We're positively gam. Thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker 1: You can follow me online at Gammy. Naris also help
Speaker 1: us out by leaving a five star review on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts and by hitting the follow button on I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Stay grateful, y'all. Positively Gam is produced by Red Table
Speaker 1: Talk Podcast and I Heart Radio. Executive producers are Adrian Vanfield, Naris,
Speaker 1: Valan Jethrow, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Our audio engineer is
Speaker 1: Calvin Bailiff, and our associate producer is Irene Bischoff Burger.
Speaker 1: Our theme song is produced by d Beats.