- We've gone from 30,000 meals a week
before this pandemic,
to this week a 150,000 meals a week
while fully pivoting our entire business to this whole new thing.
- Video of hundreds of cars lining up
for the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank
before it opened yesterday.
- One of the consequences of all the closures,
cancellations, and layoffs is that some people
might not have enough food to eat.
- Three years ago Everytable started as a
restaurant chain aimed at redefining fast food.
They wanted to take on the behemoths of the industry.
But instead of burgers and fries,
Everytable wanted to serve healthy meals
for about five bucks a piece
and make them available in underserved communities.
Their healthy food mission forced them
to rethink what a restaurant even is.
And in the process they unknowingly
set themselves up to survive in the midst of a pandemic.
- It's almost like we took sort of
the hardest problem in food.
How do you make fresh, healthy food
and sell it for less than the price of fast food?
And now we've gotten it.
- So how'd they do it?
(upbeat music)
(wind blowing)
- This is like tri-colored Quinoa.
- This is Sam Polk.
- Trying to figure out why we have so much of it.
- He was a Hedge Fund Trader on Wall Street
until he left his job, moved to Los Angeles,
and started Everytable.
- Million dollars for ten percent of the company.
- We'll do it.
(people laughing)
- From the beginning, Sam was committed to making
healthy meals available in food deserts
like Watts and Compton.
- In Los Angeles County there's over a million
Angelinos who experience food insecurity everyday.
We have twice as many people living
in South LA as compared to West LA,
but we have half as many grocery stores.
And that has a huge impact on life expectancy.
For example, the child that grows up in Watts
is going to live 12 years less than the child
that grows up in Brentwood.
- These days healthy food is a luxury product
that is enjoyed by the most affluent.
We believe that healthy food is a human right.
- To sell healthy food at five dollars a meal
Everytable had to rethink everything.
Starting with their kitchen model.
Instead of each store making it's own food,
all the meals are made in one central kitchen
then distributed across the city.
This cuts the cost of opening each new store by 75%.
Sam knew diverse lines of business
would serve the company in the long term.
So they launched vending machines
which were very low cost to operate
and allowed them to reach new markets
like hospitals, apartment complexes, or colleges.
And they launched a subscription service
where they deliver meals to customers at regular intervals.
- For us we've gotta make it by a certain time,
put it on a delivery truck,
have it go out, get there at the right time.
When it works, beautiful symphony.
And when it doesn't work,
this disastrous cluster, basically.
- But one of Everytable's most radical
business moves is pricing meals
differently based on the neighborhood they're sold in.
A meal that costs nine dollars
at the Everytable in Brentwood for example,
costs five dollars at the one in Compton.
This kind of pricing creates equity
in the availability of healthy food.
And it's also a price that makes scaling possible.
And for Sam Polk and Everytable
the goal is to eventually have 37,000 stores,
just as many as McDonald's.
Because at that size you can really
make a difference in the food system.
As an example, you know those apple pies from McDonald's?
- Sharing the warmth of our new oven baked apple pies.
- The apples inside help make McDonald's
the largest buyer of apples in the world.
It has effected the types of apples
that farmers choose to plant and as a result,
what kinds are available in most grocery stores.
McDonald's is also the largest
buyer of beef, pork, tomatoes, lettuce,
and potatoes in the world.
So what happens if Everytable gets to 37,000 stores?
What is the impact on the entire food system if healthy food
becomes the norm for most people's diets?
And what about the impact on communities?
- I grew up in what they call Uptown Watts.
We didn't have stores that had
healthy fruits and vegetables.
Everytable don't pay us to promote their brand.
But whenever we're riding down the street
we're pushing the brand of Everytable
because we believe in what Everytable stands for.
So far Everytable has been embraced by communities
in ways that most fast food brands could only dream of.
And now they're needed more than ever.
- From the coronavirus pandemic
many businesses are closed or only offering
food to go and layoffs are widespread.
- As the coronavirus pandemic set in,
Everytable like every other restaurant
wondered what its fate would be.
But as it would turn out,
they've been the only restaurant setup
to meet the demands of people that need the most,
like seniors and the homeless.
So they've partnered with the city of Los Angeles
to ensure these vulnerable groups stay fed
throughout the pandemic.
- There is only one company in this city
that is setup to do this.
And by which I mean like
has the food production capabilities
and has the logistical capabilities
together and has the willingness to sort of
go out and match the city at this speed
and at this scale,
and it's us!
So we sort of decided to step up and do it.
- Everytable will make more meals
in the first three months of LA's
shelter in place order than they did
in their first three years of business.
They're hiring 10 new people a day.
Their staff is working around the clock
to meet demand and they've added
a new kitchen that's four times
the size of the original.
What the pandemic has proven is that by
staying mission focused and reinventing
the fast food business model,
they're setup to take on any challenge.
- There's people hungry and there's a city
that's sort of is in need of sort of our services
and that's what we're going to do.
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thinking differently and changing the world.
(violin playing)