I manage a team of people a team of a
hundred people that most people in this
room would never hire and we've been
doing it for thirty years I'm going to
tell you today why this is a great idea
with my team of former convicts addicts
immigrants and the chronically
unemployed we make world-class product
that we ship around the globe we make
thirty five thousand pounds of brownies
a day in eight hundred pound bowls
everyone in this front row you could fit
in the bowl now with the brownie no and
we do it by hiring anyone that comes to
the front door of the bakery this is a
for-profit manufacturing facility that's
been hiring what many people consider
the unemployable for the last three
decades so Grayson was started by a man
named Bernie Glassman he was an
aeronautical engineer turns and Buddhist
monk because of course his story
involves a monk who else would do this
so but Bernie he was a visionary he
thought the business success and social
justice for two sides of the same coin
so today our dual focus at Greyston is
making high-quality profitable products
but also helping to eradicate poverty in
our community of Southwest Yonkers
because it sorely needed
unfortunately hunger and poverty are
everywhere today forty six million
people in the United States are living
in poverty forty six million people in
the United States are living in poverty
that's one out of six people in the
world's richest country that don't know
where their next meal is going to come
from you know where your next meal is
going to come from me too
imagine if you did it or if you didn't
know where your kids meals were going to
come from that's where we are today in
the United States
and according to a study by Washington
University that President Obama quoted
in December nearly half of all Americans
at some point in their adult life will
experience poverty that's half of all
Americans despite the appearance of a
very prosperous nation we have a problem
that's getting worse not better but the
twin stories of poverty and hunger are
neither new nor newsworthy right we've
been hearing about this for years the
collapse of communities around the loss
of jobs the decay from drugs the issues
with prisons not being able to
recuperate people the cost on society is
estimated around five hundred billion
dollars a year enabling the cycle of
poverty to continue just does not make
sense it doesn't make sense on a
humanitarian level and it certainly
doesn't make sense on a business level
when at some point maybe 50 percent of
our market is just struggling to survive
we cannot expect to continue to build
our business and our economy on the
backs of these collapsing communities we
need to make changes and we can't expect
some of the business structures in the
u.s. from 200 years ago to support our
business and social needs today so back
in 1811 New York State where we are
right now allowed for the first
registration of corporations 200 years
after that roughly Greyston bakery
became the first business in New York
State to register as a benefit
corporation so you might not know about
benefit corporations but they're now
legal corporate statuses in 27 states
and in these 27 states for those
companies that register we're legally
required to report not just on our
financial progress and our financial
metrics that we're familiar with but to
report on our environmental impact in
our social justice policy and so at
Greyston we we report across four
different areas governance community
workers and environment and we do this
to try to provide transparency to
consumers so that they know what it is
they're buying and what kind of
but either working with and we want to
do this because we want to sell good
products to consumers but we really want
to live in a nation of active and
informed citizens not just simple
consumers and so we're trying to
encourage that and what I believe now
from business leaders in this century is
that we need to look back at the
business model and we need to update it
we need to say okay how can business
this great force be used to solve some
of the social problems we have going on
right now because I can tell you for
sure we would all be better off in this
room if each one of us and anyone that
happens to manage employees were to
think about the needs of their employees
the needs of their families and their
needs of the community and a hole where
we all live and that just goes beyond
giving them a job which is great and
giving them benefits and professional
training we need to have our business
managers try to understand what these
other obstacles are these obstacles that
are preventing good people from becoming
thriving members of our society so for
example affordable childcare affordable
housing health services education
services these are all elements at
Greyston that we provide as part of our
holistic approach and we're only
partially there we're still working at
it we know we need to be better about
nutrition we need to be better about
mentoring we need to be better about
professional development and parental
skills because these are all elements
that we understand are contributing to
the cycle of poverty we've been very
fortunate in our history to have struck
a relationship with Ben and Jerry's
years ago that's allowed us to innovate
on our social justice model and the
relationship is based on a brownie
imagine that a single brownie and some
of their more popular flavors so
chocolate fudge brownie ice cream anyone
ever try it
so we make those we make those every day
that single brownie over the course of
Grayson's history has allowed 2,000
people to find work that may have never
otherwise gotten a job and those 2,000
people over time have put fifteen
million dollars back into the struggling
economy of Southwest Yonkers and we're
just one small bakery of 20,000 square
feet located on the outskirts of New
York City imagine what could happen if
other businesses looked and thought
about implementing a social justice
program at their businesses so for
example done some math right if all of
the Fortune 500 companies
looked across their vast supply chain
and said hey let's choose just one
single vendor in my supply chain that
maybe thousands of companies that might
want to institute an open hiring model
so open hiring is is the model at
Greyston it's anyone that comes to the
front door of the bakery gets a job we
don't ask them any questions we don't
ask for the references we don't try to
interview them we're only interested
about what they're capable of doing in
the future so if every fortune 500
company said let's find someone to do
that this could have the impact of
giving a hundred thousand people a job
that may never otherwise work that's
where we are right now they would
otherwise never work and then these
folks over the course of maybe 10 years
could put 750 million dollars back into
the economy's where they are and likely
those other companies are struggling and
would benefit from this each of us in
this room and probably most of us know
it already can make a difference today
by going out and buying products from
companies that we share their values
with so take the time to understand who
and what you're buying your products
from that's a simple change if you want
to take on a bigger challenge consider
open hiring at your business or consider
another social justice program that
might help the employees at your
business have better lives if you don't
know how to get started get a hold of me
get a hold of any of my team members we
would love to help you
like our founder Roshi Bernie Glassman
said 30 years ago there's no better life
LED than one LED trying to make others
succeed our long-term success is
measured on our people and it's measured
on the health of our community and so
it's a great honor for me right now to
show a short clip of a man that I
believed represents success and
leadership in my 21st century vision
before I came in Graceland I was
incarcerated for four years upstate I
was selling drugs for twenty years or
more and about 2003 I did 16 months
Kamel 2004 and I wanted to change my
life and I ain't know where to start out
where to go
at the time my prospects was not high
and I have no real hope for a legal life
I thought the streets was it I even know
right down the street was the Greyston
bakery I knew it was there it was just
that I wasn't ready and they gave me an
opportunity I got I can't really explain
the thing is gracing done for me it
saved my life if I was still in the
streets I'd be dead or in jail obviously
Oh
good afternoon my name is Dion drew I
just feel like the home tell you a
little bit about myself so I get a
better understanding of me and where I
come from I was born and raised in
Yonkers New York um I grew up in the
projects we had a very young age I've
seen a lot of drug selling a lot of drug
use my mom's work very hard she went to
work every day um I guess the pay wasn't
enough because we was in a struggle and
as I continue to get older we continue
to be in a struggle I continue to see
the people in the streets winning so I
guess that's when I turned to the
streets um I've been selling I started
selling drugs at the age of 15 I've been
in and out of jail since the age of 17
and 2004 um I had to do four years
to 2008 that's when I decided to change
my life changed my ways while I was
incarcerated I set some goals for when I
came home first get a job secondly save
some money
third start my own family and the most
important goal was its variable to be a
little it it was the home make my mom
proud of me again um when I came home I
look for work like every day but nobody
will hire me they either wouldn't call
me back or they talk about my past and
as months went by I started getting
frustrated started getting angry I was
feeling hurt that's her friend had
reminded me about greatest and bakery so
I went down put my name on a list
afterwards
I continued looking for work system
continue to get the same results I
remember this day like it was just as um
I was riding around with a friend and I
got a call from Greyston bakery asking
me do I want to work and I don't say
absolutely and I've been having since
February 2nd 2015 make six years
straight
we proud of that
when I can't grapes then I started off
as apprentice I had three promotions I
did numerous talks and it's funny that's
how laughing because after my talks I
get back to work my past co-workers
always teasing me about being a crybaby
home but but like I laughing right
now I laugh about it because now it's
tears of joy not tears of pain that's a
good feeling you know achieved
everything I said to accomplish um I
have three bank accounts I have life
insurance dental insurance health
insurance i flat almond um i have a
beautiful three-year-old daughter
um and my mom's call me about at least
twice a week let me know how proud she
is on me um things just been up on
Graceland got me feeling like I know
everybody seen rocky before I'm in
launch the vessel Oh Sylvester
Stallone's was running up the steps in
Philly and when he got to the top he was
like that's how I be feeling every day I
wake up and I was just by waking up
going to work every day but um like I
said I kind of chief everything I set
out to achieve but today is not really
about me it's about the millions of
millions other people that's out there
that I need opportunity to change their
life the opportunity to feed their
family legally we don't want to flip
side of me being home almost seven years
I still have friends in the streets
that still selling drugs I know at least
eight people that are killed on the
streets since I've been on I know over a
hundred that had been arrested and doing
five years or more since I've been home
um that's why if you're in a position to
help or you have a company or have a
high position in your company
to think about the open hiring process
because it's a beautiful thing and not
only do it change lives it helps your
company look good you know they do they
do um I wish I wish the bakery could
help um everybody because we got a
wonderful team that they empower P they
empowered me every day did you know so
but that's just not reality so we need
other companies jump on board with this
and when I hope for another person it do
something for me it put a smile on my
face just imagine if everybody walking
around smiling
I'm much better late for B you know and
I was always told as a kid to this day
if not part of the solution part of the
problem so I'm challenging everybody
here today including myself from here on
forward to be part of solution