We recently connected with Renee Blanchard and have shared our conversation below.

Renee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Church Alley serves delicious coffee and tea and healthy meals in a comfortable space.  We specialize in finely roasted coffees, espresso, and cold brew served alongside veggie forward meals. We are a mission driven company. We believe business, no matter the size, should make the community it supports better. Church Alley aims to empower a more peaceful, resilient and connected Gulf Coast through compassionate and forward-thinking hospitality products and services. We believe in our capacity to improve the health and wellbeing of our customers, staff, and environment.

I opened Church Alley Cafe & Grocery in 2013, one year after my mom passed away from a stroke. I had worked in restaurants and environmental public health non-profits for over a decade prior to launching my own cafe. These were careers I loved because of the people I got to meet and assist. Hospitality provided me with a place to talk with strangers and serve my community at a time when I needed people the most.

Recently, I began the effort to expand the services Church Alley provides. My journey into nutrition came through my love of working in restaurants. After over a decade of nonprofit work, I opened Church Alley Cafe & Grocery in 2013 to serve, nourish, and empower. However, chronic pain stopped allowing me to work in the same ways I was used to working, and I began to lose trust in my body. I felt shame and personal failure because of how my body was changing. I have managed chronic pain due to a connective tissue disorder and autoimmune disease for almost twenty years, but in 2017 I began to face severe physical limitations to the work I loved dearly. Talking to professionals, research, trial and error, and small, consistent action to improve my health led me to get a degree in Dietetics. Returning to school at 40 while running a neighborhood cafe has challenged me beyond what I knew I was capable of.

Church Alley is about community. In environmentally and economically vulnerable communities, like New Orleans, depend on small businesses not just for a third place to connect with neighbors, but in moments of crisis, unknown, and disasters. Louisiana faces chronic disease rates three times that of the rest of the country while also trying to mitigate climate change impacts on our day-to-day lives.

This is an incredible amount of stress on any community. While I believe that government and non-profits have roles in creating change, I have witnessed the transformative power of small businesses to meet local needs. In the days after a hurricane, you can not depend on the government to show up, the state tells us to be equipped to survive without help for 3 days after a hurricane. So we depend on our neighbors and the closest small business owner to do what they can to reduce harm in these precarious hours after a disaster.

The mission of Church Alley is to nourish, empower, and serve. We are proud to open everyday in our neighborhood to do just that.

Renee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Reneé Blanchard’s mission is to nourish, empower and serve in whatever capacity she finds herself. Working for the Waterkeeper Alliance during the BP Oil Disaster brought her back home to Louisiana during a particularly difficult time for all those that depend on the Gulf for their livelihoods. Traveling through the bayous and swamps of the Gulf Coast with fishing families and environmentalists was a reminder of her origins and her cajun ancestors. She decided to stay and make New Orleans her home.

Church Alley Cafe & Grocery is a full-service cafe open seven days a week. We also sell our own pantry line, including salad dressing, granola, cookie dough, hummus, salsa, coffee syrups, chai concentrate, and cold brew. In the summer of 2023, we launched our signature nutrition and wellness coaching services. In 2022, I published a book called “Focused & Flexible: Strategic Planning for Small Business” to help other small business owners move forward.

I am most proud of our innovative and community-focused approach to small business. We believe in the best of our customers and ourselves to show up for each other.

[I think I answered a lot of this in the previous question as well.]

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

COVID-19 hit New Orleans faster and harder than other areas of the country. When we had to close our shop we started doing deliveries twice a week. We partnered with other small businesses to combine efforts. This allowed me to see my customers and visit their homes. I got to talk with them and keep up with their lives. This is such an important part of small business ownership. Customers feel appreciated and known. It is the key to staying open during difficult times.

I also decided to go back to school during this time. I have managed chronic pain due to a connective tissue disorder and autoimmune disease for almost twenty years. Talking to professionals, research, trial and error, and small, consistent action to improve my health led me to get a degree in Dietetics. This has been a long journey of discovery to learn why and what to do about it. But my journey into nutrition is rooted on my love of working in restaurants. However, chronic pain stopped allowing me to work in the same ways I was used to working, and I began to lose trust in my body. I felt shame and personal failure because of how my body was changing. This was a difficult transition to figure out. I hired a full time General Manager to take over the day to day duties while I manage marketing and finance while attending school full time 1.5 hour commute out of town.

I also don’t think it can be underestimated the hardship of running a small business in New Orleans. I could have never imagined the obstacles to running a food service business in New Orleans. Yet, it provided me with a first-hand look at what a socially conscious small business can do within an environmentally and economically vulnerable community. From lousy landlords to repeated flooding to unexpected power outages and COVID, I have had to reimagine my business at the drop of the hat while staying tuned in to what I want for my life and what my customers desire. My past work in activism was full of creativity and idealism, but building a community-focused small business forced me to strengthen my commitment to my own imagination and resiliency. It has forced me to be focused and flexible in the most difficult circumstances.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I absolutely had to unlearn doing it all myself. Starting a small business, you are the only person. You are the whole team. As Church Alley grew I had to learn to train others, let go of how I would accomplish tasks, and trust others (mostly much younger than me) to keep my business afloat and keep my customers happy. This was extremely difficult. Running a business changes you as a person, hopefully for the better. I know it did me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.churchalley.store/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/churchalley/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneecblanchard/