How One Startup Believes Food Can Fuel School Performance and Wellbeing
“Both my wife and I grew up in the projects—she grew up in the projects in D.C. and I grew up in the projects in Atlanta. … From the outside looking in, now we can see the impact even on how we were raised. We just didn’t recognize it at that point. We want something better for people.”
- Frederick Griffin
It all comes back to food.
That’s something Frederick Griffin and his wife, Anna, noticed as they working to support youth education through their nonprofit, Ebony Tree Council: Access to better food boosts school performance, improves behavior and enhances physical well-being.
Yet many children in socioeconomically challenged neighborhoods live in what are called food swamps. Different from food deserts, where there is no access to food sources, food swamps provide access to unhealthy food choices like fast food chains or convenience stores.
“There’s a direct connection between a healthy nutritious diet and school performance—and the behavior that comes out of having diets that increase stress or increase anxiety because it’s stuffed with sugar and other types of preservatives that trigger that in the body,” says Griffin, a former Navy Chief Petty Officer.
The Griffins wanted to get at the root of the issue. So they decided to retool the nonprofit to create a for-profit business, Ebony Tree Farms, that would grow nutritious food such as leafy greens, herbs and mushrooms through hydroponics, help others set up modular micro farms, and train individuals and organizations in advanced agriculture.
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Grow something better
Through a social enterprise or public benefit corporation model, profit from Ebony Tree Farms could then be used to help supplement donations and grant funding for the good work of the nonprofit—using the power of food to improve physical health and financial and socioeconomic wellbeing.
But sometimes, you don’t know what you don’t know. Looking back, Griffin says they made several mistakes: not taking the time to vet his team properly, overspending on market research, and even being swindled out of a substantial amount of money. “A painful lesson, but it was because we were doing things based on our own understanding of what would be the best approach, instead of learning from an entity that had experience guiding and doing startups,” says Griffin. “We needed a real framework around building a for-profit startup the right way.”
He tried other small business programs but found the training too generic; as a public benefits corporation, he needed more specific advice. A business consultant suggested Griffin reach out to theClubhou.se for its Make Startups entrepreneurial certification program. He qualified for a partial scholarship through the CSRA Veterans Foundation and joined the spring 2023 cohort.
“We look at this as a model that’s needed not just in the CSRA but across the country”
At Make Startups, Griffin says he found a “wealth of knowledge” in coach and instructor Michael Newton. With Newton’s guidance and the support of the rest of his cohort, Griffin built his operations and established processes, not based on what he thought he knew but vetted by an expert and by other third parties going through his same situation. It was the foundation he needed, giving him clarify of focus, goals and milestones to achieve.
Ebony Tree Farms is still at an early stage; the Griffins are working to raise capital and find a location. Through connections at theClubhou.se, they’ve secured a marketing firm, Make Startups graduate, Kinnabar Marketing, and built an advisory board. Right now, they’re working to build a buzz around what they’re doing, including pop-up restaurants featuring local foods cooked by Anna, who recently presented a sampling of her mouthwatering dishes at theClubhou.se’s Demo Day event. And they’re continuing to help build community gardens and support at-risk youth through the nonprofit Ebony Tree Council.
“We look at this as a model that’s needed not just in the CSRA but across the country,” says Griffin. “Both my wife and I grew up in the projects—she grew up in the projects in D.C. and I grew up in the projects in Atlanta. … From the outside looking in, now we can see the impact even on how we were raised. We just didn’t recognize it at that point. We want something better for people.”
