Hiring ex-offenders and serving low-income communities can lead to a business that meets the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profit, finds fourth-generation grocer and entrepreneur Jeff Brown.
Brown has opened six ShopRite grocery stores in Philadelphia’s poor neighborhoods. According to PolicyLink, Brown’s is “the only grocery store chain in Philadelphia, and possibly in the nation, with an explicit focus on hiring ex-offenders.”
ShopRite has hired 260 people from the community, 40 of them ex-felons. “Communities hardest-hit by the financial crisis have benefited from the work performed by these ex-felons,” according to the article.
Brown partners with a non-profit workforce training organization, which screens ex-offender applicants, provides training, and follows up once they are employed. He says there is no difference between employees with or without criminal records.
Brown says he could not have opened the stores without the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a public private partnership that provides start-up funding in the form of one-time loans and grants to help retailers open or improve food retail stores in underserved low- and moderate-income communities.
The FFFI program has helped establish 88 new or renovated stores in urban and rural areas of Pennsylvania, with more than 5,000 jobs created or retained.
Brown said other ventures can successfully replicate ShopRite’s model, and has created a consulting firm to share information with other entrepreneurs.
