Hank’s Mini Market – Bringing Healthy Foods and Community Spirit to South LA

At A Glance

The Healthy Neighborhood Market Network (HNMN) program empowers small markets in low-income neighborhoods to offer healthy food to their communities. Since 2016, HNMN has worked closely with Hank’s Mini Market to transform it into a healthy food retailer and community meeting space that helps local residents make healthy choices. HNMN supported the transformation by providing tailored technical assistance and connecting Hank’s to sweetgreen, a national restaurant chain that helps communities provide healthy food options.

By Allison Kwan

Public Health Challenge

Hank’s Mini Market, in South Los Angeles, serves a low-income community with limited access to healthy, affordable food. The area has a high concentration of small markets that sell mostly alcohol and unhealthy snacks and few full-service grocery stores. Interventions that increase healthy food access in small markets can help improve the neighborhood food environment. However, small market owners may have limited knowledge and capacity to store and display fresh products. They may also be unable to afford the healthier inventory. Financial and technical support can help small markets overcome these barriers and offer their community healthy food options.

Approach

To transform Hank’s Mini Market into a source of healthy foods to support community well-being, HNMN worked with the small market to develop a comprehensive healthy business plan. Hank’s also received support from HNMN partner sweetgreen, a national restaurant chain dedicated to improving the foods offered in communities. Sweetgreen staff provided time and financial resources to reshape Hank’s store concept and brand, including creating a new logo and store layout. Sweetgreen also developed new inventory for Hank’s by sourcing local, cost-effective produce and other healthy options. The total transformation process took 14 months.

“Through this process, I learned that I can grow to be a community leader and a business leader and not be afraid to break stereotypes of what small markets offer. We can be part of improving access to healthy food options in the community.”
- Kelli Jackson, Co-owner and daughter of founder Hank Jackson

Results

The South Los Angeles community has embraced Hank’s transformation by becoming regular customers and buying produce, healthy packaged snacks, bottled natural juices, packaged salads, and pre-cooked nutritious meals. Before the store’s transformation, its revenue—mainly from alcohol sales—averaged about $3,000 a month. Six months after changes were implemented, the store’s revenue more than tripled to about $10,000 a month and was largely from sales of healthy foods. The updated meeting space displays works by local artists and hosts community events focused on increasing community vitality. Events have included HNMN trainings for other small market owners, cooking demonstrations, and poetry workshops.

What's Next

The transformation of Hank’s Mini Market is an exciting example of how public-private partnerships can empower small business owners to invest in and support the well-being of their neighborhoods. To build on its success, Hank’s will • Continue to partner with HNMN and sweetgreen to offer even more healthy snacks and packaged meals.• Foster partnerships with local organizations that want to use the revitalized meeting space to host healthy living and other community events.• Refine its marketing and social media presence to increase community awareness of its transformation and mission.

Find Out More

To find out more about the Healthy Neighborhood Market Network and get involved, visit https://www.goodfoodla.org/healthyneighborhoodmarketnetwork and join the mailing list at https://www.goodfoodla.org/mailing-list/ . You can also follow the progress of Hank’s Mini Market on Instagram @Hanksminimarket. This project is supported by the Diabetes Prevention - State and Local Public Health Actions to Prevent Obesity, Diabetes, and Heart Disease and Stroke cooperative agreement (DP14-1422).

Contact

Allison Kwan
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
3530 Wilshire Blvd
Floor 8
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Phone: 213-351-0394

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Web site

http://nccd.cdc.gov/nccdsuccessstories/

CDC-INFO

https://wwwn.cdc.gov/dcs/ContactUs/Form

The findings and conclusions in this success story are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the funding agencies or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).