We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jennifer Barnes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jennifer below.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.
What began as a plan to help feed 10 Sandy Springs families for 2 weeks at the beginning of the Covid 19 Pandemic in March 2020 has evolved into a community movement to serve our food insecure neighbors and improve their way of living. Virtual school at the beginning of the pandemic meant that the school chidren would not recieve breakfast and lunch at school, a service provided for Title 1 schools. The service industry shut down meaning the parents were quickly out of work. With no safety net, families would quickly become hungry. Solidarity Sandy Springs was founded to make sure no one in our own backyard would go hungry.
Fast forward. We have served over 75,000 shoppers from a The Pantry, which is open 3 days a week from 9-12. Our shoppers are 85% Latino with a large percentage undocumented. Over 50% of the beneficiaries are children and senior citizens. We live in a very affluent city, yet 30% of our population is below the poverty level. The economic affects of the pandemic were quickly followed by increasing inflation- rent increases and a drastic increase in the cost of feeding a family.
The right to food is a basic human right. Our neighbors should be able to live in dignity, free from hunger, without the emotional stress of food insecurity and malnutrician. Our basic premise is that the right to food is not about charity, but about ensuring all people have the capacity to feed themselves in dignity. From the beginning we focused on giving people the ability to choose the food they would feed their family. Our Pantry is set up like a market with multiple, interesting food choices and a vast array of beautiful, colorful nutritious produce. We continue to increase the nutritional density of the food we provide. We collaborate with other non-profits to source food rescue opportunities.
We also feed our neighbors hearts and souls, creating uplifting life experiences and opportunities. We have a Mother’s Day market where our donors and volunteers provide gifts for the children to shop for their mothers, grandmothers, and caregivers. For 3 years we have provided a Secret Santa for 1,777 children. We are gearing up for our 3rd Annual Back Pack giveaway for 1.250 school children. Vision screenings, flu clinics, job fairs, vaccines and wellness clinics are a few of our extra services all focused on improving our neighbors’ level of living.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Solidarity Sandy Springs began as an emergency Food Pantry and is now a Volunteer movement, serving the whole community. With over 7500 unique volunteers, we are continually tapping into our community’s time, talent and treasures to improve the lives of our neighbors. It’s hard to tell who benefits more-those receiving or those giving. We strive to create a volunteer experience where people interact and appreciate those being served or serving. Youth volunteers are a large percentage of our volunteer base. We are continually seeking opportunities to create volunteer experiences that will encourage kind, helpful, generous and philanthropic members of the community. Our tag line is Serving up Food, Hope and Love. We are Neighbors Helping Neighbors.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think a culture of Abundance, Kindness and Gratitude plus a welcoming and inclusive enviroment allowed Solidarity Sandy Springs to expand so quickly in our neighborhood. We believe that everyone can add intrinsic value and that everyone has a base of time, talent and treasures. We attempt to create an uplifting enviroment and appreciate the gifts and the people around us. We make “YES” our default answer whenever humanly possible. We try to make it easy to volunteer and put out good into the community. We like to include people and seek to collaborate with other organizations which makes us all better.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
We have relied on community support to fund our non-profit since the very beginning. Our initial funding came from friends and family who are very philanthropic and look for opportunites to use their gifts to help others. Early communication through social media, personal and business relationships, a creative marketing plan implementation brought us food donations and funding we needed to keep serving. We continue to communicate our work in the community and continue to be grateful for the help we have received. The focus on letting people know first hand how their money benefits others encourages continued giving.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.solidaritysandysprings.org, www.barnesyoung.com
- Instagram: @solidaritysandysprings, @barnesyoungteam, @jenluvshouses
- Facebook: @solidaritysandysprings