Cxffeeblack was struggling with its customer retention rate. A count of 290 customers showed that only 12 of them returned for a second visit, a 4% retention rate.

The owner, Maurice Henderson, thought of a possible solution. Cxffeeblack would offer a subscription-based coffee service using e-commerce software.

The business needed a technological upgrade, specifically a laptop that could efficiently run the e-commerce software.

The problem was, the subscription-based sales model wasn’t compatible with the mobile devices the business was using at the time.

The owner, Maurice Henderson, went to Epicenter Memphis for suggestions. They recommended he contact Communities Unlimited.

Maurice requested a $1,600 loan to purchase the new laptop that would be able to handle their new subscription service and perform other business-related tasks. Communities Unlimited provided a Pivot loan to the company to allow it to purchase the new laptop.

Maurice is precise in his details and has a vision for his business. He only requested a loan for the specific amount he needed to grow his business. His loan was approved.

He purchased the laptop. It came just in time for a widespread social media push that skyrocketed sales for his company. His gross sales went from a couple thousand on average per month to more than $65,000 in one month alone.

“Having a laptop gave us access to a different level of business,” Maurice said. “It’s just been a big game-changer.”

Today, his subscription service is thriving, launched in September 2020. The subscription includes a bag of coffee, virtual content from Maurice’s podcast, healthy eating tips, brewing education, and suggestions and extras such as music fromCxffeeblack’s 12-song album or t-shirts. Subscribers also get a chance to try new coffee flavors being tested by Cxffeeblack.

Cxffeeblack recently collaborated with Onyx Coffee Lab in Northwest Arkansas and created a limited coffee line for Onyx.

For more information on Cxffeeblack, visit their website at https://www.cxffeeblack.com/ or check out their latest music video (featuring the laptop) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0nbXQM_Sg.

The COVID-19 pandemic created chaos for food supply chains. Some of the hardest hit were small-grow farmers, many of whom relied on selling their fresh produce to local schools and restaurants for a steady income. Those locations closed because of orders from the governors’ office to slow the spread of the virus. Farmers and the general public felt the loss as families struggled to feed their children without the help of school meals or local restaurants.

Brenda Williams, Healthy Foods Coordinator, saw the need on both sides and developed an idea that would benefit both farmers and families, the Farm to Food Pantry Project. The result was a highly successful program that allowed local farms to find a market for their produce and distribute fresh produce to food pantries throughout rural Mississippi.

The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation gave Communities Unlimited a grant for $200,000 to purchase produce at fair market prices. On June 2, 2020, St. Bethany Fresh from Pontotoc, MS, Lockard Produce from Glimp, TN, The Produce Tribe from Stanton, TN, Rose Creek Farms from Selmer, TN made the first delivery. By the end of the program, Communities Unlimited, with Heartland Hands Foodbank’s assistance, had distributed 80,000 pounds of fresh produce throughout Mississippi and Arkansas.

Filling the Void

Communities Unlimited began its healthy foods initiative in March 2016 when USDA selected it as one of the value-chain coordinators. By that fall, Brenda Williams, Healthy Foods Coordinator, took the initiative’s reins and began building the program. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, small-scale farmers took a hard hit. Many of the farmers sold fresh produce to schools, restaurants and farmer’s markets. When the pandemic spread nationwide, many restaurants and schools closed to keep the virus from spreading, eliminating most markets for many small-scale farmers.

Brenda spoke with regional farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. She learned many farmers were throwing away their crops because they had no place to sell them. She wanted to develop a way to assist the farmers and those who needed the food when unemployment and reduced hours had severely strained income for many Americans.

Brenda turned to Communities Unlimited CEO Ines Polonius with an idea — find a way to purchase the crops from the small-scale farmers and give the produce to those in need through local food banks and pantries.

Ines was enthusiastic about the plan and worked with a potential funder to make the idea a reality.

By May 2020, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation had stepped up. The foundation provided $200,000 for Communities Unlimited’s Farm to Food Pantry Project, which aimed to purchase produce from small-scale growers and keep them from going out of business.

The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation grant allowed Communities Unlimited to immediately began working with small-scale farmers in the Mississippi River Delta to purchase produce. The farmers first delivered produce to Heartland Hands Food Bank in Southaven, MS, then distributed to a Mississippi food pantry network. Communities Unlimited used the $200,000 to purchase produce at fair market prices determined by the farmers, with the invoices paid within ten days.

From the Farm to the Food Pantry

Four farms from the Mississippi Delta delivered the first locally grown produce purchased on June 2, 2020. Communities Unlimited collaborated with the HeartLand Hands Food Pantry, Inc., to distribute the produce to HeartLand Hands’ network of 29 food pantries and 40 agencies in 42 counties in Mississippi.

Four farms participated in the initial delivery:

• Bethany Fresh from Pontotoc, MS
• Debra Lockard of Lockard Produce from Glimp, TN
• Matthew Robinson of The Produce Tribe from Stanton, TN
• Ray Tyler of Rose Creek Farms from Selmer, TN

The program provided welcome relief for farmers such as Ray Tyler. The owner of Rose Creek Farms in Selmer, Tennessee, Tyler had been selling his produce to local restaurants. When those restaurants closed, his income dropped significantly. The Farm to Food Pantry project changed that.

“It has come at a very timely manner, as we lost our wholesale restaurant accounts,” Tyler said. “We are very grateful to be part of the program, as we were able to keep our team employees this past season.”

Debra Lockard of Lockard Produce faced a similar fate. But she had worked with Communities Unlimited for years. Working with Communities Unlimited, Debra obtained her Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification from the USDA, a certification required by most groceries, food distributors, schools and hospitals.

Debra’s business was thriving.  She sold sweet and red potatoes, bitter melons, purple hull peas, okra, cucumbers, squash, banana and jalapeno peppers, herbs, and tomatoes to the Shelby County School District in Memphis as well as groceries, restaurants, and other large produce purchasers.

But most of her business came almost to a complete standstill with COVID-19, leaving Debra in need of alternate markets. “My previous contracts with schools and restaurants were canceled due to closure,” she said. “Participating in the [Farm to] Food Pantry Project has allowed me to continue my production needs of vegetables.”

By August, the program expanded into Arkansas. Vera’s Heritage Farm in Proctor, Arkansas, began delivering fresh produce to the Good Neighbor Love Center in West Memphis, Arkansas. The center provided food to almost 200 families. By September, HeartLand Hands had distributed more than 80,000 pounds of locally grown fruits and vegetables through the Farm to Food Pantry Project.

“Thanks to you and your program, we, for the first time in our history, have access to an abundance of local farm-fresh produce that has literally affected thousands of hungry people all across the state of Mississippi,” said Pastor Mike Higgins of HeartLand Hands wrote to Communities Unlimited.

The program worked so well for HeartLand Hands that Pastor Mike suggested expanding to other pantries. He connected Brenda with Ray Chandler of the Osceola McCarty Youth Development Center, a food bank in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

In September, the center received its first of three deliveries of cucumbers from St. Bethany Fresh Farm. The center received about 6,000 pounds of fresh produce as part of the Farm to Food Pantry program.

As the 2020 growing season wound down, so does the program. The program was a huge success for the farmers and the food pantries.