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Everytable Raises Fresh Funds to Make Healthy Fast Food Affordable

Everytable Raises Fresh Funds to Make Healthy Fast Food Affordable

(Bloomberg) -- Everytable, a for-profit fast-casual restaurant chain focused on bringing healthy meals to underserved communities, has closed a $7 million fundraising round by issuing debt and equity. Founder and CEO Sam Polk plans to use the money to expand the company’s fledgling subscription service and SmartFridge business and open 13 new stores by the end of the year, including a Los Angeles International Airport location in partnership with Hudson News. 

Everytable Raises Fresh Funds to Make Healthy Fast Food Affordable

The company’s business model is fairly simple. Small, minimalist restaurants are scattered in both lower-income and affluent areas of LA. Each of the seven current locations is stocked with the same selection of prepared meals—salads, grain bowls, and other healthy fare—prepared in a central commissary kitchen. Chef Zach Thomas also collaborates with local cooks such as the women of Homegirl Cafe, who collaborated on a salmon adobo bowl. Prices, however, are based on what each community can afford. A chicken and kale caesar salad in Brentwood will run you $7.95, while the same dish will cost $5.95 in Watts. A Southwest Chicken Salad at the nearby McDonald’s is priced at $4.79.

If that model sounds familiar, it should. Chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson debuted a similar chain called Locol in 2016. Within three years—unable to make the necessary profit margins, even after raising prices—Locol transitioned its Watts location into a catering and events business and closed outposts in Oakland and San Jose, California. In contrast, Everytable says it’s able to reach double-digit profit margins in underserved neighborhoods.

Everytable Raises Fresh Funds to Make Healthy Fast Food Affordable

Savvy real estate decisions and a focus on labor efficiency will keep Everytable’s prices stable as the chain expands, Polk says. “We will make enough margins to be profitable, but our value to customers is a constellation of three things: health, convenience, and affordability,” he says. 

Everytable Raises Fresh Funds to Make Healthy Fast Food Affordable

The company also plans to diversify revenue streams a bit, or as Polk puts it, become an “omni-channel, fresh, prepared food business.” Everytable recently debuted a subscription service that delivers batches of the inexpensive meals in insulated boxes to customers’ homes. It has also started stocking SmartFridges in offices and on college campuses around the city. Customers swipe a credit card to open the fridge and are charged for whatever they take out. Fridges are located at Kaiser Permanente, Saatchi & Saatchi, TOMS, and the University of Southern California.  Everytable estimates that for every 50,000 meals sold through its SmartFridge program, they can open a location in an underserved community. 

Everytable Raises Fresh Funds to Make Healthy Fast Food Affordable

Maintaining the variable pricing model of the stores, the company will introduce its first fridge in a South LA public high school in August; meals will cost from $5 to $6, still high for such a meal. A full-price high school lunch in the Los Angeles Unified School District costs $3.50.

Polk is also working to launch a social equity franchise program in 2020. The plan, which would require $2 million in funding, would provide entrepreneurs of color from underserved communities with a year-long training program and the chance to run their own franchises. Initial funding for the program has been provided by  the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Everytable is currently in talks with other foundations to secure the rest.

Everytable Raises Fresh Funds to Make Healthy Fast Food Affordable

The company is currently looking for its next commissary kitchen to support its California expansion. Polk says the next batch of stores will be in middle-income areas while the company continues to expand into both underserved and more affluent communities.  “We really feel like we hit on this model that has the potential to reshape the food system” says Polk. “We can really reach people where they are through our stories, fridges, and subscriptions.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kate Krader at kkrader@bloomberg.net, Joshua Petri

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