Alexander Aguilar greets every buyer that comes into Everytable on Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana at lunchtime with a smile.
“Is that this your first time right here?” Aguilar asks Deb Cities, who has stopped by the brand new Everytable grab-and-go retailer, which opened this month. The storefront sells prepackaged salads, wraps, grain bowls and juices.
“Our mission right here is to rework the meals system by making nutritious meals inexpensive and accessible to everybody, from each neighborhood,” stated Aguilar.
Alex Aguilar helps buyer Deb Cities discover what she is in search of on the newly opened Everytable in Santa Ana.
(Kevin Chang / Employees Photographer)
Everytable is cofounded by Sam Polk and David Foster, who took their idea to ABC’s “Shark Tank” in 2018. Polk based a nonprofit known as Feast, which addressed food-related well being issues in South Los Angeles by offering diet training, cooking lessons, free produce and help teams.
Whereas Feast helped the neighborhood eat more healthy at house, Polk discovered that when folks have been on the go, they didn’t all the time have wholesome choices obtainable to them. He and Foster labored collectively to create Everytable, hoping to serve meals deserts, areas the place it’s troublesome to search out inexpensive, high quality meals.
“Everytable is on a mission to turn out to be the McDonald’s of recent, nutritious and inexpensive quick meals,” Polk stated in a press release. “We hope to serve the Santa Ana neighborhood by offering a brand new kind of eating expertise for company on the go and in search of a meal that’s as wholesome and craveable as it’s inexpensive and handy.”
Everytable has 10 areas within the L.A. space however is increasing quickly with plans to triple its footprint by 2022. Two areas are actually open in Orange County, each in Santa Ana.
Aguilar is the overall supervisor at Santa Ana’s second location on Harbor (the primary one is on Bristol Avenue) and is enrolled in Everytable’s Social Fairness Franchise program at Everytable College. Created in 2021, this system goals to empower and prepare entrepreneurs from marginalized communities to personal and function Everytable franchises.
“They convey you in and also you begin studying all of the operations; you begin out as a retailer supervisor,” Aguilar stated. “And when you are managing the shop and studying all of the operations, there are additionally lessons that they’re offering for you.”
Aguilar stated he has taken lessons on finance, accounting, entrepreneur mindset and public talking since becoming a member of this system in August.
“The lessons are serving to us construct our information and when it’s time to open up our personal franchise, we will put all these expertise into play,” stated Aguilar.
Everytable College is a part of Everytable’s mission to attain true meals equality. The free program prioritizes candidates who belong to a marginalized group or neighborhood, and people who efficiently full it have the chance to personal and function an Everytable storefront.
Aguilar is the one worker on the Harbor retailer, which retains overhead low. A central kitchen provides shops with the prepackaged meals and in addition provides Everytable’s meal subscription service. Meal subscriptions will be delivered to prospects houses weekly, biweekly or month-to-month. Prospects also can choose up their weekly subscriptions at their nearest Everytable location, which Aguilar stated units Everytable aside from different meals prep companies.
Alex Aguilar, 29, of Lengthy Seaside stands contained in the newly opened Everytable in Santa Ana. He is without doubt one of the first to enroll in Everytable’s pioneering Social Fairness Franchise program.
(Kevin Chang / Employees Photographer)
“One of many massive variations is we have now storefronts, which permits folks to come back in and store,” Aguilar stated. “To truly select their meals and really see what they’re choosing out.”
Meals vary from salmon adobo to butternut squash and quinoa salad in addition to wraps, snacks, gluten-free desserts, juices and kombucha all priced from $6 to $9.
Aguilar stated he’s an enormous fan of the turkey taco bowl and the pineapple pork luau bowl. However much more than the meals, Aguilar enjoys connecting with the neighborhood.
“There are lots of people that are available in that wish to change their consuming habits,” Aguilar stated. “These prospects turn out to be regulars, and also you begin to see how simply getting access to this meals can change their weight and even their perspective. One factor that I imagine in is in case you really feel good, you do good.”
