Honoring the History and the Journey

We began our journey together behind a humble lunch counter tucked inside a beloved, long-standing health food store where community, good food, and social responsibility are the core values. With the recently announced closure of Healthy Foods Market, we are dedicated to carrying those values into the future.

• I grow my roots deep. I changed my name the summer before sixth grade to become the fourth Amenie in my family because I value that kind of living heritage. I chose to settle in the town I grew up in, having lived elsewhere only to find that my home (and heart) has always been here, nestled between the mountains and history of Lexington, VA. My husband, Damon, and I met, worked, and fell in love together behind this lunch counter at the center of Lexington's venerable Healthy Foods Market. This campaign is all about acknowledging our personal journeys and honoring the rich history of local food and social activism that has shaped our exquisite hometown. The Blue Phoenix Cafe & Market is a nod to the Blue Heron Cafe, which is where I worked my first restaurant job and consequently discovered the creative, connective power of food. It also pays homage to the recent  loss in our community of Healthy Foods Market which in 43 years of business was never just a store, but a beautifully inclusive space where people gathered as strangers and left as friends. It is from the proverbial ashes of Healthy Foods that our new cafe and market will take shape.
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• In many ways I think of our work as social art, with food as our medium. Each plate is a canvas, inviting people to gather, experiencing something new together, and go back out into the world subtly nourished in body and spirit. Building on our individual journeys and community legacies, The Blue Phoenix Cafe and Market will hold an open place in our downtown for people to gather and reconnect with one another, to feel safe, welcomed, and accepted.
• Your contributions today provide more than just capital for expanding an established business. When you give, you are directly involved with community building through a social-entrepreneurial project where each decision is governed by a core imperative to provide social, physical, mental, and emotional nourishment to everyone who walks through our door. 
• Every. One. Every. Day. No one goes away empty.

What We Need 

$65,000 to build a sustainable, food-based community center. Since we're bringing with us almost four years of steadily increasing sales, marketing, menu development, and customer loyalty, most of your contributions will go directly to expansion of services and rejuvenation. Below is the  break-out of what your generosity and direct involvement will create. We decided to aim high, laying out the whole shebang, and giving you all the details of what it's going to take to reach our ultimate destination. We don't need the entire fundraising goal to keep the doors open but every extra dollar that you give is a critical piece in constructing a strong business capable of consistently giving back to the community that built it. 

• Overhead Costs during the transition to The Blue Phoenix and for the first three months of operation $6,000: rent, utilities, licensing, insurance, etc.
• Equipment & Structural Improvements $5,000: we're trying to purchase and re-purpose as much equipment, shelving, counters, and physical assets from Healthy Foods as possible. It helps them close financially solvent and it helps us keep expansion costs low. There are a few items, like a new display cooler for our meal kits, that we'll have to purchase outright.
• Labor $5,000: we're planning on putting a lot of sweat equity into our new business, but there are some projects that require expert help and we're going to need cash on hand to pay our talented area craftsmen and helpers.
• Inventory and Ingredients $12,000: it's time to fill the shelves (and the kitchen), preferably with as much locally sourced products and produce as we can find. Here is where we get to take your dollars and invest them right back into the community. 
• Point of Sale System $3,000: this will help us keep track of sales and inventory more accurately, speed up the checkout process, and provide better customer service and kitchen efficiency.
• Payroll $12,000: it takes a significant investment to recruit and train an awesome staff and it's very, VERY important to us that our business model is strong enough to achieve and sustain a living wage for every single employee. 
• Advertising $2,000: although we'll be doing some paid social media advertising, most of our advertising budget will go to ads and sponsorships placed with athletic or academic groups, non-profits, and other similar organizations in our area. We want our marketing to count for more than just getting the word out and keeping our money local helps achieve that goal.
• Total Kitchen Renovation $20,000: this is the biggie, so we've saved it for last. Our cafe kitchen is charmingly shabby with its DIY, patched together, punk appeal, but it's literally coming apart at the seams. Here's the short list of what needs to happen: expand the total space, install a commercial hood with fire suppression system, remove and replace the floor, install a backsplash, purchase and install new worktops, sandwich prep unit, stove and grill, paint, and raise the dish sink.

• Handcrafted, creative food from the area's ONLY exclusively vegetarian & vegan eatery serving breakfast, lunch, and (eventually) dinner!
• The development of a warm, accessible, public venue for music, art, learning, and socializing.
• Lexington's only downtown grocery store and year-round, indoor farmers market
• Meal kits for those who want healthy, home-cooked food but don't always have time to find recipes and prep all the ingredients.
• A Buyer's Club where you can special order organic and natural foods and products at a huge discount. 
• An "Everyone Eats" policy that ensures there will always be at least one menu item that is priced on a pay-what-you-can model so that everyone who wants to may enjoy a dignified, lovingly prepared meal. 
• Partnerships and collaborations with other area organizations, especially those that provide education, health, outreach, and relief services.
• Connection and Community. We can't say it enough!! This really is the bottomline, the reason for everything we do.

• If we do not reach our total funding goal, we will implement a more moderately phased business plan. Our goals and values will remain constant, it's just going to take more time to affect the same degree of community enrichment and impact.

Speaking of Impact...

The Lexington of my childhood was a very different place. Main Street was home to three groceries, a hardware store, a pharmacy, and even a small department store. It was a thriving market place built for and sustained by the local populace. I want to see those stores return. I want to help build a local economy that supplies basic, daily needs in addition to the draw of beautiful boutiques and elegant restaurants. 

Keeping the doors open to the last downtown grocery is a deliberate, socioeconomic investment and radical display of local activism. Our continued operation, our growth and viability, is a vital step in building a resilient downtown and network of personally invested, connected individuals. The resurgence of needs-based Main Street businesses encourages people to put down the screen, leave their car at home, keep money local, and deepen ties with other residents. 

I'm a child of the technology era. I've never known a time without computers. I have a smartphone, tablet, and laptop. I'm hyper-connected just like most of you and I love all my technological tools. I'm using them to achieve a crowdfunding goal right now. But if all that technology went away tomorrow, what would we have left? 

I want that answer to include a community where I can walk down the street to pick up groceries, household supplies, a prescription, lunch with a colleague, coffee with a friend, and know that if I'm running late my neighbor two houses down can watch my child until I get home. 

I want to live in a world nurtured with trust, authenticity, and equity. Four years ago I left a stable, secure, but demoralizing job to go work at a tiny health food store where the pay was terrible, the work challenging, and the future tenuous. I've never looked back with regret. I gained a sense of belonging so deep and a community so committed that it is with tremendous hope and dedication I am ready to make the next leap of faith.

But Look Before You Leap (This goes for you, too)

It is an understatement to say that the Lexington community and store membership were shocked when the Board of Directors announced the closing of Healthy Foods Market. It has shaken our collective confidence in the ability of the small, independent grocery and cafe to make it in a world filled with big box stores, food franchises, and convenient, less expensive online retailers. There are undeniable logistical hurdles to be cleared. Raising support, awareness, and capital top the action list. 

I do not expect anyone to blindly leap across the void without first checking that there is at least some possibility of success. I have spent the last year looking both behind and ahead. The Blue Phoenix Cafe and Market represents the meticulous harvest of the richest elements of Lexington's whole foods movement. We've carefully nurtured the vision with plenty of lessons learned from our mistakes (and successes) and now we're ready to let it grow into something beautiful, resilient, and fulfilling. We're not going to do everything at once. No one is going to do this alone. We are lovingly, trustingly reaching out to clasp your hand. It's going to take a village.

Other Ways to Help:

Not everyone gives in the same way so here are some suggestions for other ways to pitch in:

• Network! Share! Inspire! Spread word of our campaign with friends, neighbors, and families. Social media is an especially powerful tool for connection and activism, but picking up the phone is marvelous too.
• If you're in town, come visit the store! The doors will be open under Healthy Foods Market & Cafe through January. See for yourself why we are all so passionate about this little corner of Lexington.
• If you're local, we're going to need all the help we can get during our transition to The Blue Phoenix. Skills, services, advice, elbow grease, raw materials, equipment, and tools are all appreciated. Nothing says "together" like a barn (or store) raising.
• Surprise us! There are probably millions of ways to help that we haven't even thought of, so let us know!