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South East Market Expansion

South East Market is a small grocery store and food hub with a mission to increase access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food through a sustainable and equitable lens. We do this by working first with our priority vendors which are Black, brown, indigenous, people of color, local and women-led businesses and farms. To support our mission we engage with several urban agriculture efforts and provide support to budding businesses.
A Grand Rapids native, Alita received a B.S. from University of Michigan in Environmental Science and Sustainable Business in May 2020. Upon returning to Grand Rapids she decided to jump into the dream of South East Market, founding the organization after she had been working for several years manifesting it before a Fall 2020 launch. Prior to South East Market Alita was a serial entrepreneur and managed multiple nutrition programs in the nonprofit sector. She enjoys being a local advocate for food sovereignty, urban agriculture and diverse representation in the business sector. Alita does this through community engagement as chair of the City of Grand Rapids’ Urban Agriculture Committee, co-founder of the West Michigan BIPOC Farmer Land Fund and founder of the MLK Park Freedom School and community garden.
https://www.southeastmarketgr.com/
March 5×5 Night In Muskegon
Voting Closes:

March 20, 2023 11:59 pm

About this idea
Over the last two years South East Market has proven to be more than a grocery store but a movement! In the midst of COVID Khara DeWit and Alita Kelly opened the sustainable and equitable answer to food injustice for 49507 and beyond. In this time they have outgrown their space and have increased their reach tenfold but they aren't done yet. With new contracts and opportunities presenting themselves they have the potential to propel several local food businesses and farms through their retail store and food subscription boxes. Their expansion will also include prepared food and expanded delivery options!
Impact
South East Market's impact is most significant for the businesses we support and all of our customers in 49507 and beyond. We are a vessel to providing healthy, local food to our community which strengthens our people and our food system at large. Strengthening our local food system and encouraging people to grow and eat whole foods is one of the best tools for climate resiliency and wellness.
What I'll do with $5,000
This will kickstart our prepared food operation which will allow us to reduce food waste and turn local food into delicious healthy meals and snacks that people can eat on the go. Many of our customers are looking for the convenience of prepared food without all of the health consequences. $5,000 will provide us with the capital to get our initial cooking equipment, kitchen rent, cooler/fridge rent and provide us with some capital to onboard staff with food safety training and create protocol and recipes for our prepared foods. This value add will have significant implications for our sales as any time we have healthy, prepared food it sells quickly.
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About Alita Kelly

A Grand Rapids native, Alita received a B.S. from University of Michigan in Environmental Science and Sustainable Business in May 2020. Upon returning to Grand Rapids she decided to jump into the dream of South East Market, founding the organization after she had been working for several years manifesting it before a Fall 2020 launch. Prior to South East Market Alita was a serial entrepreneur and managed multiple nutrition programs in the nonprofit sector. She enjoys being a local advocate for food sovereignty, urban agriculture and diverse representation in the business sector. Alita does this through community engagement as chair of the City of Grand Rapids’ Urban Agriculture Committee, co-founder of the West Michigan BIPOC Farmer Land Fund and founder of the MLK Park Freedom School and community garden.

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