A Patch of Promise : Student Garden Provided the Seeds for a Business

The hopes of 40 enterprising South Los Angeles high school students will today be in the hands of grocery shoppers across the Southland.

Straight Out ‘the Garden salad dressing--a concoction created and marketed by students at Crenshaw High School--will begin to hit 2,000 supermarket shelves throughout Southern California.

What began two years ago as a simple vegetable garden behind Crenshaw High’s football field has evolved into the first student-run natural foods company in the country. Far beyond that, it is a clear example of how cooperation among people from all parts of the city--rich and poor, minority and white--can coax positive things to rise from the ashes of the riots that nearly ripped Los Angeles apart two years ago.

Every major grocery chain--including Vons, Lucky, Ralphs, Albertsons and Alpha Beta--will carry the group’s all-natural dressing, whose proceeds will be plowed back into college scholarships for students at the predominantly African American and Latino high school.

The nonprofit, student-run business behind the venture, Food From the ‘Hood, hopes to raise up to $200,000 in scholarship money this year, mostly through sales of the salad dressing at supermarkets. If the creamy Italian dressing proves to be profitable at $2.59 a jar, it could help lay the groundwork for even more central city projects that not only create jobs, but real-world business ownership opportunities for inner-city youth.

“Inner-city kids can do a lot more than loot and riot,” said Jaynell Grayson, 16, an 11th-grader at the school whose passionate presentation helped persuade Lucky Stores to carry the brand. “It is one thing to shout and complain about things that go on. But we can do much more than that. This is all about self-esteem.”

Supermarket executives insist that the decisions to stock the salad dressing were neither public relations ploys nor acts of charitable kindness from the big chains--some of which have been criticized for not doing enough to help rebuild Los Angeles since the riots.

“The product is a good product, and that’s the bottom line for us,” said Kevin Davis, senior vice president of Ralphs Grocery Co., which is stocking the dressing at all 166 of its Southern California stores. “It looks good. It tastes good. And we expect to see repeat sales,” he said.

At rival Lucky Stores, buyer Debra Levin said that after tasting the dressing, her decision to stock it was simple. “If I was served it in a restaurant, I’d be very happy,” she said.

Although the ingredients for the salad dressing do not come directly from the student garden, the idea for the dressing--which has no preservatives and no cholesterol--was inspired by the herbs grown there.

The dressing, which can be purchased at stores in Beverly Hills or Baldwin Hills, is the direct result of dozens of individuals--each uniquely affected by the riots--banding together with the shared goal of creating jobs and business ownership opportunities for minority youth.

Among the key players:

Forty minority high school students--all eager to learn about business. A teacher who turned a patch of earth into a thriving garden. A public relations executive whose idea it was to convert that garden into a business. A minority investment banker who helped the group draw up a business plan. A food packer who took the project seriously. A food broker who helped persuade supermarkets to carry the unconventional brand. A West Coast salad dressing king who loaned the group his strategic counsel and his name. And critical grants from several groups, including RLA and the city of Los Angeles, which together exceeded $100,000.

Each of the school’s participating students has an “ownership” stake in Food From the ‘Hood. Based on academic achievement, college prep work and volunteer work in the garden or office, students accumulate “points” that convert directly into college scholarship money when they graduate.

Students work in the garden--after school, during their free periods and occasionally on weekends. Other students help by answering phones or filing papers in the group’s office at the school, which until recently was a science lab. And students participated in every step--from the creation to the marketing of the salad dressing. Some of them will soon be handing out samples of the dressing at neighborhood stores.

Although there is constant adult supervision by a teacher or full-time volunteer, students are calling most of the shots. The group has intentionally not formalized its management structure.

Students refer to themselves as student owners because the proceeds will go toward their college educations. What’s more, virtually all of the decisions on the salad dressing--from its ingredients to the look of the label--were made by students.

Ben Osborne, 16, helped design the label on the bottles. The colorful image shows a blossoming vegetable garden in the middle of the inner city.

“I wanted to show that beauty can exist in the inner city,” Osborne said. “And if you look closely, you see pink, purple, green and red people in the middle of the garden. Everyone is welcome here.”

Among the most welcome, however, is Melinda McMullen, a Los Angeles public relations professional who left her executive job nearly a year ago to work full time on the project. After watching the riots on television, she called a friend at the Los Angeles Conservation Corp., who linked her up with a project under way at Crenshaw High, where students were attempting to develop a vegetable garden.

The school has no agriculture teacher, but the garden started coming to life under the auspices of Tammy Bird, a biology teacher who quit coaching the school’s male and female volleyball teams to devote all of her spare time to the garden.

McMullen, who had never even been to the inner city, saw the garden for the first time and recalls thinking to herself: “The riots weren’t about gardening. They were about business.”

She suggested that they try selling the garden’s produce. The object: to empower the students by giving them a stake in the results of the project. But the income was limited, and the vegetables spoiled quickly. That’s when the group decided on the next logical extension. Since their garden was full of lettuce and herbs, why not also make the stuff that gets poured on top of it?

Besides, if actor Paul Newman could successfully sell a salad dressing that helps more than 400 charities worldwide, why couldn’t Food From the ‘Hood sell a dressing that helps students help themselves?

That’s when the group started linking up with professionals for guidance. Among the most important: Norris Bernstein, whose family ran a successful restaurant and salad dressing business in Long Beach for three generations.

Bernstein is a volunteer consultant who shows up at most of the student’s weekly planning sessions. Among other things, he advised them to try to get the dressing placed at major grocery chains.

Bernstein, who sold his salad dressing business 20 years ago and is now a management consultant, read about the group in a newspaper article. “Most people have six or seven bottles of salad dressing in their refrigerators,” he said. “There’s a pretty good shot at getting people to try a new one.”

Helping the students concoct the recipe was Paula Savett, president of Hawthorne-based Sweet Adelaide Enterprises, a large salad dressing packer. Her company manufactures the dressing in large vats and packs it into 12-ounce bottles.

A Los Angeles minority-owned investment banking firm, Luther Smith & Small, helped the students write a business plan. And the students even paid a professional food broker, Orange-based Bromar of Southern California, to help them get the dressing on store shelves.

Russ Landreth, president of Bromar, paved the way for the students to make their pitches to supermarket buyers. He’s optimistic about the students’ chance of success, saying that new products don’t need huge sales to be considered winners.

“They only have to sell nine bottles per store per week to be a big success,” Landreth said. “That doesn’t sound like much, does it?”