Everytable: Meals that Hit Your Price Point w/ Bryce Fluellen

get into it. Bryce flew Ellen is a community change maker and has fought for food justice and social equity for more than twenty years, developing and implementing strategic programs at Starbucks, Magic Johnson Enterprises, and the American Heart Association to drive systemic change to benefit underserved populations and communities. He joined Every Table to lead its pioneering social equity

franchise program. Welcome Bryce to Positively gam. Hey, good to see you, glad to be here, Thank you, glad to joined us today. I'm so excited to have you because I actually heard about Every Table first on Spectrum one News and that's what brought you. Yeah, I brought this to my attention. But before we really get into it, let's just start by telling me everyone, what is every Table? Yeah?

That's great, gam I mean every Table was a Los Angeles based mission driven food company whose mission is to transform the food system and make nutritious food accessible and available to everyone everywhere. Wow, So what kind of food are they selling? It's a company, but is it a restaurant? Yeah, that's great. I mean we serve chef prepared food every day and so it's grabbing go. So we have an interesting model. So all of our food is made in

a commissary fresh every day. We have a thirty thousand foot commissary in the city of Vernon, which is right behind downtown l A. All the food is cooked, prepared, packaged, uh, and distributed into So we have several different channels where people can interact and consume our food. We have restaurants stores uh here. To date, we have twenty three in Los Angeles right now. We hope to have sixty by

the end of the year. Uh. And then we also have a subscription service, so Gammy, that really took off during COVID Go back to two thousand nineteen. I know a lot of people like to forget, but in two thousand nineteen, right before the pandemic hit, we had started a subscription. We had about two hundred customers and now year today we have about five to six thousand. We also have a food service division, so we have a number of contracts with the Department of Aging where we're

servicing and serving seniors. We have UH Santa Monica College where we get food to food and secure teenagers and in college students. And then we also have smart vending machines that are in businesses as well, so we have our We're trying to be eat the customer wherever they are again, where they are. This is fantastic. This is fantastic. How did you even find out about Every Table? Yeah,

this is serendipitous and you appreciate this. It speaks to the power of relationships, right and that we don't do anything without the support of others. I actually met Sam polk Or, a CEO and founder when I was working at American Heart Association and previous to Every Table, he had a nonprofit called Feast provide a nutrition education in the under serve areas in South l A. The school

and program that I ran through American Heart Association. I'm a chef by trade, so I was teaching young kids how to eat healthy, how to prepare it in a healthy manner, and he had started Feast at the same high school manual Arts. So one of the community of recent members within the school sent me a white paper and say, hey, what do you think about this program? They want to use one of our bungalows. I said, hey,

you know it's needed. Tell them if you ever need somebody, I'll come and do a demo whatever it is and talk nutrition. And he brought me in and we built a relationship there, Gammy, and so then you fast forward two thousand and fifteen, he started every table. So Feast was the impetus of every table because a lot of the participants would say, hey, we would love to eat healthier, saying, but everything in our community is fast food stuff that you can get from the liquor store. Plus the fast

food hits our price point. It's convenient. If you can make something that can compete with that is a healthier then we would consume it. And so he created every table and I said, he congratulations. So then you fast forward again. Gave me a call and said I have this social equity franchise program that I've had a vision for and kind of started raising money in two thousand and eighteen. Now is the time to coundify it, scale it.

I think you'd be the right person and and it was right in alignment with my values, Gammy, And it was really an opportunity. As you know, there's so many problems in this world, but what we need is solutions. Rightly, this is a piece of that solution to provide healthier food and more nutritious food in areas across the country, and at a price point like our meals are between five to nine dollars, Like you're not gonna get that anywhere. Yeah,

that's this is fantastic. This is just fantastic. So I wanted to share a statistic that I found to be pretty profound and not surprising. According to the Annual Business Survey, only about eighteen percent of US businesses where minority owned in Why do you think that's so low? I mean, my my assessment of it would be lack of funding. You know, as African Americans particularly, we're not able to secure loans. Can you speak to that? And I think

you hit the nail on the head. I mean, there's a couple of reasons, but that's one of the main is that access to capital traditional capital, bank capital, but also and This is part of you know, why I'm so proud to be, you know, leading this social equity franchise program is that also, you know, generational wealth, A lot of minorities, particularly black people, we don't come from

generational wealth. We can lean on a family member. I think I heard Jeff Bezos say I think it was him who said, hey, my parents gave me three four hundred thousand dollars to start Amazon, and so that is a lot of money that I have a lot of money if we don't have access to that, right, and we could be here forever talking about the reasons why right, systemic issues and racism. But I think that is a

big piece. And then the last I've seen also that a part of this is like not having access or mentors or people that you know that in your circle. I actually was an entrepreneur have my own catering business for eight years, and I had to borrow money small amount of money from my father and then I had to use credit cards. But as I look back on that experience, you know, I was under capitalized. I didn't have the working capital that would help get me through

those times. You know where you're in the red, right, you just don't have the money coming in. So those are a couple of three of the issues. But I think that what you identified as a big thing is like, we don't have that access to additional bank capital. A lot of banks don't want to take risk because we may not have collateral, we may not have the homeownership numbers and and things of that nature. Right, But I think you you talked about mentorship, and I think mentorship

is very important too. We don't have the resources, but we also don't have people to set an example for us, people that we can go to for advice and that we see in our own families a lot of times, So that's important too. Now you're working on something to directly combat this issue. You were brought on as the new executive director at Every Table Social Equity Franchise Program to build out a team to support their new innovative social equity franchise program. Can you explain that. I think

you call it the Every Table University. Yeah, every Table, I'll explain it to you. Try to make it plain and simple as I can. Every Table University. Is this the training program for the social equity franchise program. And so if you look at your Aditionally, gammy franchising a lot of industries has been an industry of privilege where you had to access to capital to get in the game. On the low end, you need to have at least

fifty thousand in a lot of cases. On the high end, if you think about a McDonald's single franchise McDonald's, you have to have about one to two million dollars of your own money and and a net worth about a half a million as well to start a franchise. Yeah, the McDonald's, and obviously that's on the high end. They're one of the most successful franchise companies in the history, right, But that's just one unit, and even fifty thousand on the low end, that's a lot of money for people.

As we talked about earlier of not having right. So we understood that the intersection between food and equity, and I listened to your last podcast where you had you talked about food injustice and food and equity, food apartheid, that you know, we understand the intersection between that and economic inequity as well, right, And so at the heart of what we're trying to do is transform the food system.

So we have a vision to also transform in the franchise system and put ownership opportunities in the hands of people of color who haven't traditionally been able to get in the game. So that is the simple vision of it. Now here's the beauty of this program. You do not have to have any money up front, no money up front, There's no strings behind this, nothing hidden behind this. I'll explain it to you. So we are looking for individuals who have not, like I said, had an opportunity, have

not been able to get in the game. Do not have to have five to ten years business experience, but maybe they have one to two. They've been a supervisor, they've been an assistant manager, They've always had dreams of owning their own business but thought it was out of reach. You have a hospitality mindset that you really care about taking care of guests, and we can teach the other things.

Because one of the things about our our brand GAMM is that, like I said earlier, all the food is pre made and made before it comes into store, so you don't have to run a kitchen. You're basically have an opportunity to really Greek guests and learn the business

and learn how to grow the business. And so if you go through a five stage interview process and if you get accepted into the program, you'll be trained for eight to trained for eight to twelve months, you'll become a manager, and then at the end of that training

you will have the opportunity to own a franchise. If once you own it, you sign onto a franchise agreement and you pay us back over five years of the build out costs and every table, which is between two hundred seventy five to three hundred thousand, but you do not start paying that back until the business is profitable and it's patient. You know, the payments are non linear, meaning like the first year you're you are received positive cash flow, the payments are really low, and then once

you pay it off, you own the business outright. There is no collateral required either. Games it's almost too good to be true. I get that. Like, so what determined what profitable is? Yeah, that's a great question. So we look at having at least eight months of positive EBADA, which stands for earnings before interest, tax and appreciation. So once you get your franchise and you start to receive a positive cash flow, at least you know, six to

eight months in a row. Then you start paying back those payments on on the loan that we give and this patient capital. So I'll explain to you how we were able to do this, Gabby, which is really transformative. Yeah, because it seems like like companies like McDonald's and some of these other franchises have plenty of money and it just seems like there's no reason why other companies shouldn't be doing this. So so continue and explain to us. But you have to have the vision and you have

to have the courageous leadership to want to do it. Yes, because you're investing in people who have been divested from for years and almost in centuries. So we are. Sam was able through his experience at feast of the nonprofit that he had, he reached search what's called p r I, which stands for program related investments. Foundations have assets of about a trillion dollars right all the foundations in this country.

They usually invest They usually give out grants. You know, grants are not you know right off, what they have they can do investments means they can actually invest in your company, public benefit corporation, or social enterprise like we are from a tax code perspective and we have a mission which is to transform the food system and then with the Social Equity Franchise program, to provide more opportunities

for people of color who haven't had that. So we started going to foundations back in two thousand and eighteen and received and a small investment from Kellogg Foundation for about one point five million, and through that experience just continue to do that into the year to date, we've been able to raise almost seven million in a mix

of program related investments and then grants. The thing about program related investments gamming is that typically to interest rate, the foundation's charge is anywhere from zero percent at nothing or two. So it's paid its patient capital, and it's capital they want to get out into the free market and the hopes that they'll invest that they'll get their investment back and then they'll keep investing that money, right,

and it's an alignment whatever that foundation's values are. So with Kellogg, they have a real, you know, big push around equity, particularly around food equity. One of our other investors and and Berg really into providing economic opportunities for people of color who have been disadvantaged. So that's how we're able to you know, create this opportunity for this program, and we just see it as it's going to be central to who we are as a company in a

large amount. And so you'll look up four or five years from now, Gammy and Division, and my job is four or five years now, we'll have sixty or plus, you know owners who will be black and brown people. That's amazing. So how many people have gone through the program so far? Yeah, we currently have six that are in the program. They are anticipated to become franchise owners this summer, late July, early August, so they would be

setting this is the history into making. They would be the first six, and then we have another four anticipated fore and then you know, we have we're raising a significant amount of money. I can't get full full details, but we're in the process of raving raising another significant and out of amount of money that would help us have about sixty to seventy associaequity franchise owners in the

next four or five years. Wow. So but this is just right here in Los Angeles, right yeah, right now, it's in l A where we have plans as a company. We're actually going to New York this summer and about a month or so, so our plans and our vision is that once we get New York up and running, to try to take this program to New York three or twenty probably early, and so then we would have social equity franchise program in New York. But right now to your main question is in Los Angeles and he

plans to go to Baltimore. Hey, you put it out there, you put it out there. I mean, we are testiperate, we are desperate in Baltimore. We are in Baltimore. I mean we have plans. You know, we're gonna go to New York and then we have plans to go you know. Yeah, it's called Baltimore. I think about it. I love Baltimore. I went to school in the d C. So I have love for you know, Yeah, Baltimore needs help. Multimore needs help because this feels like something that other businesses

and other companies could be part of. I mean, I hope is that we do have people who copycat where we're doing. There's some folks out in the marketplace that are doing some things similar. You know, I'm a part of you know, I read the Trades National Restaurant magazine, and there are a few smaller brands or brands of our size that are doing it. There's also I know Taco Bell has created something similar for their franchising as well. But I think to your point, we hope we wipe.

People see this and they're inspired and they want to do it and implement and in their industry, not only a food but across the board. Because I know you you and I understand that, Hey, you talked about earlier the ownership piece of minorities owning businesses and the number what it was, so we know that there's a huge opportunity and a huge gap. And I just think that, like I said, it takes peak courageous leadership. It takes

leadership that's committed after the moment. I say that again, committed after the moment, because as you know, during the pandemic and after the uprisings, there were a lot of people who said that they wanted to do certain things and they made commitments. But I say, hey, after the commitment, you still have to where is everybody. You gotta do

the work. You gotta do the work. So we're committed to We're putting in a lot of work and a lot of sweat equity to make sure that we follow through on our promise and we create economic mobility and wealth for those people that are being the program. Now, there was one young lady that I saw that was in the news clip that I saw. D. How is she doing? Where does she stand with the program right now? Because she was close, she was close to graduating and

becoming an owner? Is that correct? D? Isn't that six? Okay? Okay? So let me tell you about DA. I mean D had She and embodies what we talked about and what we want here at every table. And she has actually had a tremendous impact not only on me, but in the store that she opened up and that she's opening and running now and she's been there since this inception in Compton. She is that every Table store in company. Yeah, so I would say that, but D has done. D

has created a community, She has grown that store. If you go to that store and you meet people, they will talk about who D is. They'll ask for D. So she is what we want and what we look for it and I can't wait until she becomes an owner. She's she opened the store in Compton about four years ago as a company owned store. But we had just talked about her as a team like D is that story. I mean, when you walk into that store, she greets

you with a smile. She you know, make sure that you're taken care of, make sure you walk out that you're going to walk out and tell somebody else you need to go to every table, not just for the food, but just for the whole experience that hospitality and treating

like treating people like they're in your own home. And so I said, a lot of people in the community when they think of the Competence Store and every table, they think of D. And so I'm really proud of, you know, how she's grown in the program throughout training. But like I said, she's had a tremendous impact on

me and every table since she's been here. And so my job and the job of other folks within the company is to make sure that she becomes a franchise owner and that she's successful in that, and we're really able to help her see her vision. I mean, she has a vision of you know, creating a legacy for her family. Oh man, this just I mean, I had the biggest smile on my face. This just makes my heart feel good. I think I'm gonna have to go visit D and I'm gonna have to go stop by everything.

Can you describe some of the meals that are offered? Wow? So, Gammy, we have hot bowls. I just want to tell you about one and then I'll get into the whole menu. So we have a chicken creole gravy bowl that was actually created in partnership one of my favorite restaurants in l a Posting Beam Ball Hills area, right next to

the Debbie Allen's dance studio. So we created that meal last Black History that's February with chef Ron Cleveland over there, And I don't know if you've ever been there, but I mean this meal is, you know, roasted chicken with a creole gravy collar, greens, brown rice, red beans. This is an eight dollar meal if you went to the Posting Beam or to another restaurant. This is like meals, so you can get it from us from eight dollars six to eight dollars. So we have hot bowls. We

also have salads. We have this free got this got a salad, this chicken gotta salad. That's one of my favorites. We also have breakfast items and then we also carry juice. We have started our juice line last April, so we have our own fresh juice. We have a beet juice that's delicious. I know when I was I love beats. Beats, Yeah, I love beats. I know when I was growing up, I could I could not stand beats. Most people don't like beats, but I love beats. So this beat juice

is amazing. And then we have desserts, some healthy desserts, vegan cookies, some healthy snacks, you know, chips and snacks, so we have a variety of meals that for everybody. Well, this is just amazing. And I'm telling you you can tell d that I'm gonna come and visit her and in her store. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm just so excited about the program. And I was gonna tell you that, you know, I think that you you should be doing your own line of food products.

I still got time, I still have time. But I think what you're doing now, right now is so impactful to the community that like you were made for this. I appreciate that. Yeah, and this is this work is so important. So thank you so much, Thank you so much. Now I want you to do one last thing though, I want you to go over once again. What are the things that you are looking for people that could

qualify for this kind of program. Yeah. Yeah, we're looking for somebody who has at least one to two years of retail, restaurant hospitality operations experience. Someone that could do you know, can commit to eight to a months of training. This is paid. So the training program is that you're hired in as the store manager. You go through store management training which is about a month, then you're placed

in the store. You're managing that store, and then we fold in leadership coursework, so we have coursework from financial management all the way to communications, entrepreneurial mindset. We're also looking for someone who, like I said, really cares about customers and people and the other stuff we can train, right, we'll train you on that. So and another thing is someone who wants to be a hands on owner because we are that we do. We are a model that

we don't have kitchens. We can run a store with something between one to three people, so which means that you will be ringing up people, you'll be greeting guests. So it's not like a McDonald's where you know that person would usually hire two managers or so and never see an owner working in this owner would you know as an owner, you'll be working in the store. And our hopes is also gammy, is that this will create will create a pathway from multiple franchise units. So people

who are successful in managing one. I think the the people like d and other people that are in the program who have been with every table for a few years, I think once they become owners, I think they could have to three four Yet, so this is that's that's the main thing we're looking for. And that entrepreneur of spirit, like that spirit that says, hey, this is mine. I noticed is the franchise and I'm working with every table, but I want to take ownership. I have ideas that

I want to bring to the table. I want to also be a part of this company growing and I'm an integral part of that. So good stuff, Rice, thank you so much, no problem, thank you. Now it's time for the segment. Wouldn't you like to know before you go, Bryce, I have a couple of questions I'd like you to answer. What book are you currently reading. I'm currently reading the book called The City of Segregation, A hundred Years for

the Fight for a public housing in Los Angeles. So it's really important and insightful too as we talk about systemic issues, whether it's food and equity, economic and equity, housing. I mean, the housing piece is a big part of a lot of the struggles that that folks of color, black folks especially face today. So a lot of people don't think of Los Angeles being segregated, but this book written, yeah, it should tells you everything about it. What is one

thing you want to get off your chest. I want to encourage people to have more intellectual humility. So what that means, Gammy, is that I want to see more of people saying, hey, I'm open to listening to other people's ideas and opinions. I'm also open to the fact that I don't know everything, and there's so much to know in this world, and so I'm constantly trying to learn,

listening to different perspectives. And I think if people understood that, hey, no matter how much you know, this is a big world with a lot of information, there's more that you don't know. And so being really humble about that and moving forward in that spirit that thank you. What's a mottel that you live by? It takes a village. It's about the collective. So if you think about all the problems that we have today or that we hear about, none of this is going to change unless we come

together as a collective and understanding. It takes all of us. Just like the Social Achuity Franchise program, like, we wouldn't be able to do it without the support of our philanthropic partners, and they come to the table and said, here's an issue that we're aligned with. We want to help you, even though you're a corporate company. We want to come to the table and see how we can help. So my motto has always been my ancestors and my elders raised me that way, like, hey, it's a village.

I love that, love it. And where can people find you on social media? Brace Yeah, mainly on Instagram under a chef underscore Bryce and then you can also find me on Facebook under Bryce Fluellen F l U E L E N. So those are my more active platforms. Thank you for all that you're doing, Thank you for inviting me to your platform, and congratulations on all you've been doing as well. Thank you so much. Congratulations keep

doing what you're doing. You're doing a great job. My one takeaway from this conversation is that I'm excited to learn about a company willing to invest in people and not just profit. Kudos to every Table. Let's hope that other companies follow suit with social equity franchise programs that continue to offer ownership opportunities for minorities. And that's our show for this week. We're positively gam. Thanks everyone for listening.

You can follow me online at Gammy. Naris also help us out by leaving a five star review on Apple Podcasts and by hitting the follow button on I Heart Radio. Stay grateful, y'all. Positively Gam is produced by Red Table Talk Podcast and I Heart Radio. Executive producers are Adrian Vanfield, Naris, Valan Jethrow, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Our audio engineer is Calvin Bailiff, and our associate producer is Irene Bischoff Burger. Our theme song is produced by d Beats.