Celia and Joe Ward-Wallace are an incredible couple
from South Los Angeles.
Despite opening their business right before the pandemic,
they have managed to stay open and give away groceries
to the community every week.
Celia and Joe, thank you for being here.
Thanks for what you do.
Oh, my gosh.
We're so excited to be with you, Ellen.
I am so excited to meet you all.
You're both amazing.
So you opened up South LA Cafe in December, 2019.
Is that something you always knew?
You wanted to open up a cafe, that was a plan for a while?
Well we know that we wanted to open up a cafe.
We didn't know to what extent.
And we saw the changes happening so we
decided we'd better do it now.
We've been together for over 25 years.
We've always had businesses.
We've always been community organizers.
And this cafe gave us the opportunity
to combine our passions and really serve the community.
So I heard there's one person who
likes to get coffee from your cafe a few times a week.
Yes.
I'm sure you're a big fan.
We're even a bigger fan now.
Ariana Grande really made a commitment
after George Floyd's death and deepen her work
around Black Lives Matter and committed to supporting
small local Black owned coffee shops.
And decided that ours was the best in the city.
So she's been coming at least a few times a week.
Good for her.
Thank you, Ariana.
Ariana, that's very cool.
And hopefully more people will be inspired by that.
That's really great.
I mean, if she's that impressed and she
goes to get the coffee from you, it must be really good coffee.
It is.
It's really good.
All right.
So why was it so important for you to open your business
in South Los Angeles?
I know the answer to that.
But this was shocking to me.
I really just learned this morning but explain.
The area doesn't really have many--
Grocery stores or restaurants.
I mean, it's a complete food desert.
So we decided, and especially healthy food, so we
decided to open up a cafe that would
concentrate on healthy food along with our market.
Yeah.
Predominantly, Black and Brown lower income communities, often
are food deserts.
And if you don't live in one, you
don't really know what that is because you
go to all of these grocery stores and restaurants
all the time.
You think that's normal.
But in lower income communities of color,
often there's no grocery stores, there's no restaurants.
And so since we live in this community,
we wanted to give back and we wanted to provide an option.
Everybody thought we were crazy, too.
Listen.
People should be opening stores.
And I don't know why that is, but hopefully that will change.
We started on our market for that very reason.
We're going to change the narrative.
It's a small piece.
There it is.
And we serve healthy vegetables.
Why should I have to travel so far to get an apple?
It's crazy.
Yeah.
Well, that's why we have you on because that's amazing.
So in the middle of trying to keep your doors open,
you wanted to give back to the community.
So you came up with a grocery giveaway.
Talk about that.
Yeah.
So obviously with the pandemic, we
have only been open four months before that happened.
It hit, our sales dropped 70%.
We had to furlough 90% of our staff.
It was crazy but we pivoted, and Joe literally
had a download in the middle of the night.
He woke me up.
I had a dream.
He said we have to create this thing called the South LA
Grocery Box.
So we put our minds together.
We came up with the concept that was a $35 fresh bag or box
of produce that was enough to feed a family of four
for an entire week.
We set it up where people could buy a box for themselves,
or they could sponsor a box then we
say give to a neighbor in need.
What we found is over 70% of the sales
went toward sponsoring a box.
People all over the world were loving
that this was an easy way. $35 to feed a family of four.
And we started our grocery giveaway
where we decided we were going to serve over 150 to 250 people
now.
Every single week, free food.
You're amazing.
All right.
We have to take a break.
When we come back, we'll talk more about what you're doing.
More with Celia and Joe after this.
So how much does it cost to giveaway groceries
to your community every single week?
Well one person picks up a bag, a box.
It's $35 for that family to be fed
and you can imagine we're doing hundreds of people every week.
So it adds up to thousands and thousands of dollars.
Every week that we fundraise from small and large donors,
and whatever the differences we make up as a business.
We whip out the credit card.
Because we're not going to let anybody get turned away.
We're going to make sure that everybody that needs to eat
gets food.
Gets fed.
That's incredible.
Well, as you said, people are helping
and hopefully people will go to our website
if they want to help and donate and help you out.
I'm going to drive down there and get a coffee someday.
I can't wait to taste that coffee.
Yeah.
We know Ellen you already have our matching uniform.
You're color coordinated.
I don't know if you know that, but black and white.
Yes.
That's why I did it.
I knew what you were going to be wearing.
All right.
Well, listen.
Shutterfly cares about all that you're doing.
They want to help you because you're
giving back to the community.
So they want to give you a check for $25,000
to help you out today.
Listen, everybody.
If you can help them out, help them out.
Go to our website to find out how you can help them.
Or just go down to South LA Cafe and have some coffee
and have some food and support them.
And you know, when everything is normal again,
you're going to get paid back in full.
So you're doing good stuff.
Ellen, you are amazing.
You are amazing, and Shutterfly is amazing.