August 7, 2025 • 15 mins
Dr. Vanessa Tyler talks with Jilea Hemmings, co-owner and creator of Nourish + Bloom Markets. Using the latest A.I. technology and community investment strategies, Jiliea and her husband Jamie are opening innovative grocery markets across the country. Jilea talks about their experience on the reality show Shark Tank, and their journey to success.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Bringing up at the supermarket, you pay when you finish. Well,
how about not going up to a cash register at all.
We all know the typical supermarket, but Nurish and Bloom
is different. It is about healthy eating and it is
black owned.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Many of our customers say, I feel like I'm stealing
because it's like literally you're walking in, grabbing what you
want and walking out.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A concept that's mind blowing the way they do business
for the black community. Get your list. We're going grocery
shopping in Blackland, and now, as a brown person, you
just feel so invisible.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Where we're from. Brothers and sisters are welcome you to
this joyful day.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And we celebrate freedom.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Where we are, I know someone's heard something.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
And where we're going.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We the people means all the people. The Black Information
Network presents Blackland with your host Vanessa Tyler.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We all go grocery shopping, but few experience shopping like this,
a black owned grocery store that is so high tech.
Don't bother to bring your wallet in fact, pick up
what you want and walk out the store. But there
is more to this than the tech. There's a purpose
and a mission to Nourish and Bloom market. Joining me
(01:22):
is the owner and creator, Jilea Hemmings.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Jilea, welcome, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Nourish and Bloom is a new experience for us. But
this is bigger than the tech. It's about the health
of the black community. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, absolutely, When you think that you know, one in
five black households in America struggle with food insecurity, right
and with the continued cuts to public assistance, the gap
is only growing. This is truly, you know, a crisis, right.
And for my husband and I, we saw first and
(02:01):
what the challenges were around living in areas that were
food and secure, where your only options are corner stores
or fast food. And we're both parents, and we thought,
what if tech could be used not just for convenience,
but for care. And that's what we sought to bring
to market with Nourish and Bloom.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Jilea and her husband, Jamie Michael Hemmings weren't always in
the food supplying business. The two were corporate, but the
need came from a space deep in their own stories.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
My son was two years old, he was diagnosed with autism,
and they mentioned that the biggest way that we could
help him was to ensure that he ate a clean diet.
Both my husband and I at the time were both
working in corporate America with crazy schedules as many people
I'm sure can relate to. And what we knew it
was our son and we had to do something to
give him the best shot at success. So we started
(02:54):
to get into the kitchen and make meals that we
knew were healthy for him, and he liked them. And
we also have other kids. They always say, you always
forget about us. We're not forgetting about you. So it
was important not only for him, but for all kids
and right and for all of humanity really to eat well.
And so once we started to see that, you know,
he liked them, our younger kids also enjoyed the meals,
we knew we had something special there and that's how
(03:17):
we first got into the food space of making healthy
meals for kids that were quick and healthy. So he
was our inspiration. And then when we moved to Atlanta
five years ago, we found ourselves in the food desert again,
and you're wondering, how are we going to make sure
that we could continue and to ensure that he was
eating well, And we saw there was no options that
(03:37):
were close, right, We were in a traditional food desert
being you know, greater than a mile away in urban areas,
greater than five miles away in the rural areas from
fresh food. That we decided to open the first AI market,
Nourish and Bloom, which was the first black on autonomous
grocery store in the world to open. That was focused
just on ensuring that no matter what time of day
(03:59):
it was, always have access to something you could feel
good about.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And what they're doing is more important now than ever.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
We've all seen the recent cuts in what's coming over
the next ten years and with a lot of these
new initiatives that have just come out, and it is
going to affect the amount of dollars that is spent
or given or allocated towards food. And then also with
the rising costs of food. You put those two together,
(04:26):
it is a recipe that is, you know, really a
recipe for a disaster.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We all know what a food desert is and we
all know where it is, so those are your target areas.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So we target Our mission is twenty four to seven
access to fresh food, right, So that's a collective but
through our technology we've been able to also laser focus
on food deserts, right areas where traditional big box stores
have not been able to come, Like, how do we
ensure that our mission, which is twenty four to seven
fresh food for all, is really for all? And so
(05:00):
we really spent a lot of our energy and time
in food deserts because we've seen a lot of neat there.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What can we find on the shelves of nourish and bloom?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Sure, so you find a little bit of everything, right,
So we're not you know, a traditional store is about
forty thousand square feet. We're not that. But we're the
bridge between the corner store and the big box store.
So you can expect to find you know, fresh produce.
We have meat, we have dairy, you know, all of
the essentials that you would find in any other store.
We just don't have maybe the variety that you'd see
(05:31):
in a larger footprint store. But we have a little
bit of everything. And our goal is that every time
you come in, you make a better choice. You know,
maybe if you were going for you know, traditional milk,
you might now go and select you know, almond milk
or cashew milk like this, exposing you to more alternatives
that are better for your.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Health here, I was just reading that your your jerk
chicken is like finger licking good the jerk chicken.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah. So we also do have prepared meals, right because
a lot of times we're all busy and we want
to make sure that even on the go, that you're
able to come in and grab, you know, a meal
that you can feel good about. And one of those
is our jerk chicken. So you know, we have been
known for having some of the best jerk chicken, I
think in the southern United States.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So we could find familiar brands on your shelves.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Absolutely, but then you also can find amazing local brands
as well that you can also purchase, so we try
to curate that. You know, you might have a local
cookie next to a national brand cookie, but now you have,
you know, a choice between the two.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Okay, the tech, About the tech, how does it work?
And how did you and your husband come up with
this concept?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
We came up with it during the pandemic as well,
so that was also something that we all felt collectively
together what the impact was of seeing stores closed and
limited hours and all of those things, but still needing,
you know, to have our basic functions and being able
to access fresh food. And so we knew the power
of AI because we both have backgrounds in both the
(07:04):
healthcare space as well as in technology, and knew that
that could take away the friction that was causing a
lot of stores to limit their hours, long lines and
people were looking at social distancing and so forth, and
so our store is simple use. It's all about taking
the friction around friction away from the parts of shopping
that we know one likes, which is waiting in line
(07:24):
or checking out. So to shop at our stores, you
just simply tap your card to enter, so that could
be a debit card, a credit card. Were the first
in the country to take ebt with our technology or
download our app where you would upload your credit card,
debit card and you scan on our turnstyle. You walk
in and you shop naturally, grab whatever you need, put
back what you don't, and then when you walk back
(07:45):
through our turnstyle, you're automatically charged.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It's so totally Jetsons but here and now.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
We're really redefining what the future of work looks like.
No longer do you have to stand on your feet
for eight hours a day. You can actually monitor the
store from a distance, right, So that allows you to
be able to cover more ground. But when you're in
the store, a lot of times you are in there
by yourself, and it's not so much the honor system,
right because you're tapping your car to go inside, so
(08:16):
you know your payment has already been verified before you
walk in. And it's really meant to just you know,
just take away, as I said before, the friction around
you know, the last mile of shopping, right, the waiting
in line, the payments, I'm scanning the item and it's
not registering or it's not in the system. All the
things that we've all been through and all of those
pain points and how long we spend waiting in line.
(08:38):
Just as a society, we've just taken away that part
of it. And so it really is just meant to
just make the shopping journey easier. And that's what we've done,
and we've been really proud about that. Many of our
customers say, I feel like I'm stealing because it's like
literally you're walking in, grabbing what you want and walking out.
I mean, this technology we've all had now, I think
(09:00):
the opportunity to experience what large language models are like chat,
GPT and Gemini and all of those, and so we're
utilizing similar technology. We're using computer vision sensor fusion, so
it's really accurate and the cameras are able to really
track whether you come with yourself, come by yourself, or
you come with your family. You can have, you know,
groups of different folks shopping at the same time, and
(09:22):
it accurately knows what you're being charged and accurately make
sure you're being charged correctly.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
What a concept for this black couple, tech savvy enough
to make it work. If only they could get the
attention of a shark.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Hi Sharks, we're a Jamie and Jilea, the husband and
wife team behind Nurishing Blue Market.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
We're here they seeking now four hundred thousand dollars investment
for five percent equity in our company, Sharks.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
It's no secret that fresh and healthy food is a
necessity for all living things. But did you know that
a shocking one in eight Americans living food deserts, where
fresh and healthy food is scarce. In urban areas, people
may live over a mile away from any fresh produce,
and in the rural areas that distance can stretch to
more than five miles.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
But we're here to change that introducing Nourish and Bloom
market Sharks. We're on a mission to build micro markets
like this and food deserts across America.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Great pitch, but the sharks aren't biting.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I wish you the best, I'm not hey, guys, let
me just give you the brutal honest, your finances are
a disaster, what right.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I mean, that's one of the things that's been so
hard for being entrepreneurs and lots of entrepreneurs, and like,
if me just with this idea, the fact that we've
been able to get to get.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
This bit, are not taking anything away from you guys, right,
because we've all had our backs against the wall where.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It's like we got to get to the next day.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I will figure it out, and I will roll what
I have to roll to get that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And when you turn back and look at it, it's
a mess.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Right, But that's what you had to do to cobble
it all together. Lip. But it's not really investable for me,
you know.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So for those reasons, I buy the sharks were brutal,
they ravaged, but faith and perseverance, Julia says, nourish and
bloom is now blooming. The sharks did not stop them.
The black couple got out of the tank and kept
on stepping.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
You know, we didn't get a deal, and that was fine,
but we got so much interest from around the country
just talking about areas where they're lacking access to grocery
stores in their community, begging us to come. And so,
you know, now we're just super busy trying to see
how we can support as many communities around the country
as possible because this, you know, having access to food
(11:39):
should be a right, not a privilege, and we really
have taken away that barrier that a lot of traditional
big box stores have with coming into communities. Our technology
helps us to reduce overhead costs so that we can
go into communities and be able to serve.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
This is fantastic. Where are your stores and how can
we shop there?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So we have two stores open right now in the
Atlanta area, one in Fayetteville and one in Cascade Heights
Historical Cascade Heights in Atlanta. We're going to be opening
up actually two more stores this year in the Atlanta
area as well. So that's going to be in Pittsburgh
Yards as well as on the fourth Ward Skate Park
(12:23):
on the East Side of Atlanta, So we're really excited
about that. And then next year we're going to be
franchising our stores around the country, so you're going to
start to see them everywhere, which is what we're really
excited about. When we first started to discuss the idea
of what we were looking to do, you know, we
(12:44):
had a lot of you know, when you think about
traditional funding, they just didn't know if this was even possible, right,
you know, especially in the Southern United States. We were
the first to do this in the Southern United States.
So this is a shopping experience that most people had
never heard of. And there's something really special about community.
(13:04):
The reason why our first store got open was because
our friends and our family believed in us. And when
we think about the idea of having an opportunity to
invest and imagine if we had the opportunity to invest
in you know, the big box stores that we see
today at its inception, you know what that would have
done for you know, our communities, our families, our wealth,
(13:27):
and so you know, this is what the opportunity was,
and they saw it, they saw a need. They believed
in Jamie and myself that we could pull it off,
which we did when traditional investment did not. And so
that's why we're really big on community investment and now
we're actually doing it again and making sure that it's
even more accessible for the community to be able to
(13:50):
get in and invest now and reimagine how Americans eat.
So we're doing that with our weef under campaign, where
were as little as one hundred dollars. Now you can
help to build the next nourish in Bloom stores and
also be a part of all of our future growth.
And so you know, you have to give credit to
the Jobs Act for allowing this to be possible, because
(14:10):
prior to that you had to be an a credited
investor to even be able to get in on these
early deals. That now, through that bill that was passed
allows for you know, anyone who has a desire to
be able to invest and start to continue to build
wealth for their families. And so, you know, the community
really stepped in and said, we believe in you, and
(14:30):
if you can do this, you're going to really have
the ability to impact, you know, the way we access
food for generations to come. And that's why the first
store was open, that's why the second store is open,
and that's how We're getting all of our stores open,
and so even when they say no, we're going to
show them why this is a model that definitely works.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
How can we follow nourish and Bloom so.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You can follow us on Instagram, on LinkedIn. You can
definitely learn more through our Wefunder campaign just nourish and
Bloom or nourish and Bloom fully spelled out across all
platforms and our website for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Jilea Hemmings, thank you for keeping our community healthy.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I'm Vanessa Tyler. See What's Happening in Blackland. There will
be a new episode every week.
Bringing up at the supermarket, you pay when you finish. Well,
how about not going up to a cash register at all.
We all know the typical supermarket, but Nurish and Bloom
is different. It is about healthy eating and it is
black owned.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Many of our customers say, I feel like I'm stealing
because it's like literally you're walking in, grabbing what you
want and walking out.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
A concept that's mind blowing the way they do business
for the black community. Get your list. We're going grocery
shopping in Blackland, and now, as a brown person, you
just feel so invisible.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Where we're from. Brothers and sisters are welcome you to
this joyful day.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And we celebrate freedom.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Where we are, I know someone's heard something.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
And where we're going.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
We the people means all the people. The Black Information
Network presents Blackland with your host Vanessa Tyler.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
We all go grocery shopping, but few experience shopping like this,
a black owned grocery store that is so high tech.
Don't bother to bring your wallet in fact, pick up
what you want and walk out the store. But there
is more to this than the tech. There's a purpose
and a mission to Nourish and Bloom market. Joining me
(01:22):
is the owner and creator, Jilea Hemmings.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Jilea, welcome, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Nourish and Bloom is a new experience for us. But
this is bigger than the tech. It's about the health
of the black community. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, absolutely, When you think that you know, one in
five black households in America struggle with food insecurity, right
and with the continued cuts to public assistance, the gap
is only growing. This is truly, you know, a crisis, right.
And for my husband and I, we saw first and
(02:01):
what the challenges were around living in areas that were
food and secure, where your only options are corner stores
or fast food. And we're both parents, and we thought,
what if tech could be used not just for convenience,
but for care. And that's what we sought to bring
to market with Nourish and Bloom.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Jilea and her husband, Jamie Michael Hemmings weren't always in
the food supplying business. The two were corporate, but the
need came from a space deep in their own stories.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
My son was two years old, he was diagnosed with autism,
and they mentioned that the biggest way that we could
help him was to ensure that he ate a clean diet.
Both my husband and I at the time were both
working in corporate America with crazy schedules as many people
I'm sure can relate to. And what we knew it
was our son and we had to do something to
give him the best shot at success. So we started
(02:54):
to get into the kitchen and make meals that we
knew were healthy for him, and he liked them. And
we also have other kids. They always say, you always
forget about us. We're not forgetting about you. So it
was important not only for him, but for all kids
and right and for all of humanity really to eat well.
And so once we started to see that, you know,
he liked them, our younger kids also enjoyed the meals,
we knew we had something special there and that's how
(03:17):
we first got into the food space of making healthy
meals for kids that were quick and healthy. So he
was our inspiration. And then when we moved to Atlanta
five years ago, we found ourselves in the food desert again,
and you're wondering, how are we going to make sure
that we could continue and to ensure that he was
eating well, And we saw there was no options that
(03:37):
were close, right, We were in a traditional food desert
being you know, greater than a mile away in urban areas,
greater than five miles away in the rural areas from
fresh food. That we decided to open the first AI market,
Nourish and Bloom, which was the first black on autonomous
grocery store in the world to open. That was focused
just on ensuring that no matter what time of day
(03:59):
it was, always have access to something you could feel
good about.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And what they're doing is more important now than ever.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
We've all seen the recent cuts in what's coming over
the next ten years and with a lot of these
new initiatives that have just come out, and it is
going to affect the amount of dollars that is spent
or given or allocated towards food. And then also with
the rising costs of food. You put those two together,
(04:26):
it is a recipe that is, you know, really a
recipe for a disaster.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We all know what a food desert is and we
all know where it is, so those are your target areas.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So we target Our mission is twenty four to seven
access to fresh food, right, So that's a collective but
through our technology we've been able to also laser focus
on food deserts, right areas where traditional big box stores
have not been able to come, Like, how do we
ensure that our mission, which is twenty four to seven
fresh food for all, is really for all? And so
(05:00):
we really spent a lot of our energy and time
in food deserts because we've seen a lot of neat there.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What can we find on the shelves of nourish and bloom?
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Sure, so you find a little bit of everything, right,
So we're not you know, a traditional store is about
forty thousand square feet. We're not that. But we're the
bridge between the corner store and the big box store.
So you can expect to find you know, fresh produce.
We have meat, we have dairy, you know, all of
the essentials that you would find in any other store.
We just don't have maybe the variety that you'd see
(05:31):
in a larger footprint store. But we have a little
bit of everything. And our goal is that every time
you come in, you make a better choice. You know,
maybe if you were going for you know, traditional milk,
you might now go and select you know, almond milk
or cashew milk like this, exposing you to more alternatives
that are better for your.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Health here, I was just reading that your your jerk
chicken is like finger licking good the jerk chicken.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah. So we also do have prepared meals, right because
a lot of times we're all busy and we want
to make sure that even on the go, that you're
able to come in and grab, you know, a meal
that you can feel good about. And one of those
is our jerk chicken. So you know, we have been
known for having some of the best jerk chicken, I
think in the southern United States.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
So we could find familiar brands on your shelves.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Absolutely, but then you also can find amazing local brands
as well that you can also purchase, so we try
to curate that. You know, you might have a local
cookie next to a national brand cookie, but now you have,
you know, a choice between the two.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Okay, the tech, About the tech, how does it work?
And how did you and your husband come up with
this concept?
Speaker 2 (06:42):
We came up with it during the pandemic as well,
so that was also something that we all felt collectively
together what the impact was of seeing stores closed and
limited hours and all of those things, but still needing,
you know, to have our basic functions and being able
to access fresh food. And so we knew the power
of AI because we both have backgrounds in both the
(07:04):
healthcare space as well as in technology, and knew that
that could take away the friction that was causing a
lot of stores to limit their hours, long lines and
people were looking at social distancing and so forth, and
so our store is simple use. It's all about taking
the friction around friction away from the parts of shopping
that we know one likes, which is waiting in line
(07:24):
or checking out. So to shop at our stores, you
just simply tap your card to enter, so that could
be a debit card, a credit card. Were the first
in the country to take ebt with our technology or
download our app where you would upload your credit card,
debit card and you scan on our turnstyle. You walk
in and you shop naturally, grab whatever you need, put
back what you don't, and then when you walk back
(07:45):
through our turnstyle, you're automatically charged.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It's so totally Jetsons but here and now.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
We're really redefining what the future of work looks like.
No longer do you have to stand on your feet
for eight hours a day. You can actually monitor the
store from a distance, right, So that allows you to
be able to cover more ground. But when you're in
the store, a lot of times you are in there
by yourself, and it's not so much the honor system,
right because you're tapping your car to go inside, so
(08:16):
you know your payment has already been verified before you
walk in. And it's really meant to just you know,
just take away, as I said before, the friction around
you know, the last mile of shopping, right, the waiting
in line, the payments, I'm scanning the item and it's
not registering or it's not in the system. All the
things that we've all been through and all of those
pain points and how long we spend waiting in line.
(08:38):
Just as a society, we've just taken away that part
of it. And so it really is just meant to
just make the shopping journey easier. And that's what we've done,
and we've been really proud about that. Many of our
customers say, I feel like I'm stealing because it's like
literally you're walking in, grabbing what you want and walking out.
I mean, this technology we've all had now, I think
(09:00):
the opportunity to experience what large language models are like chat,
GPT and Gemini and all of those, and so we're
utilizing similar technology. We're using computer vision sensor fusion, so
it's really accurate and the cameras are able to really
track whether you come with yourself, come by yourself, or
you come with your family. You can have, you know,
groups of different folks shopping at the same time, and
(09:22):
it accurately knows what you're being charged and accurately make
sure you're being charged correctly.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
What a concept for this black couple, tech savvy enough
to make it work. If only they could get the
attention of a shark.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Hi Sharks, we're a Jamie and Jilea, the husband and
wife team behind Nurishing Blue Market.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
We're here they seeking now four hundred thousand dollars investment
for five percent equity in our company, Sharks.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
It's no secret that fresh and healthy food is a
necessity for all living things. But did you know that
a shocking one in eight Americans living food deserts, where
fresh and healthy food is scarce. In urban areas, people
may live over a mile away from any fresh produce,
and in the rural areas that distance can stretch to
more than five miles.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
But we're here to change that introducing Nourish and Bloom
market Sharks. We're on a mission to build micro markets
like this and food deserts across America.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Great pitch, but the sharks aren't biting.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I wish you the best, I'm not hey, guys, let
me just give you the brutal honest, your finances are
a disaster, what right.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
I mean, that's one of the things that's been so
hard for being entrepreneurs and lots of entrepreneurs, and like,
if me just with this idea, the fact that we've
been able to get to get.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
This bit, are not taking anything away from you guys, right,
because we've all had our backs against the wall where.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
It's like we got to get to the next day.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
I will figure it out, and I will roll what
I have to roll to get that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
I get it.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And when you turn back and look at it, it's
a mess.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Right, But that's what you had to do to cobble
it all together. Lip. But it's not really investable for me,
you know.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
So for those reasons, I buy the sharks were brutal,
they ravaged, but faith and perseverance, Julia says, nourish and
bloom is now blooming. The sharks did not stop them.
The black couple got out of the tank and kept
on stepping.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
You know, we didn't get a deal, and that was fine,
but we got so much interest from around the country
just talking about areas where they're lacking access to grocery
stores in their community, begging us to come. And so,
you know, now we're just super busy trying to see
how we can support as many communities around the country
as possible because this, you know, having access to food
(11:39):
should be a right, not a privilege, and we really
have taken away that barrier that a lot of traditional
big box stores have with coming into communities. Our technology
helps us to reduce overhead costs so that we can
go into communities and be able to serve.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
This is fantastic. Where are your stores and how can
we shop there?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So we have two stores open right now in the
Atlanta area, one in Fayetteville and one in Cascade Heights
Historical Cascade Heights in Atlanta. We're going to be opening
up actually two more stores this year in the Atlanta
area as well. So that's going to be in Pittsburgh
Yards as well as on the fourth Ward Skate Park
(12:23):
on the East Side of Atlanta, So we're really excited
about that. And then next year we're going to be
franchising our stores around the country, so you're going to
start to see them everywhere, which is what we're really
excited about. When we first started to discuss the idea
of what we were looking to do, you know, we
(12:44):
had a lot of you know, when you think about
traditional funding, they just didn't know if this was even possible, right,
you know, especially in the Southern United States. We were
the first to do this in the Southern United States.
So this is a shopping experience that most people had
never heard of. And there's something really special about community.
(13:04):
The reason why our first store got open was because
our friends and our family believed in us. And when
we think about the idea of having an opportunity to
invest and imagine if we had the opportunity to invest
in you know, the big box stores that we see
today at its inception, you know what that would have
done for you know, our communities, our families, our wealth,
(13:27):
and so you know, this is what the opportunity was,
and they saw it, they saw a need. They believed
in Jamie and myself that we could pull it off,
which we did when traditional investment did not. And so
that's why we're really big on community investment and now
we're actually doing it again and making sure that it's
even more accessible for the community to be able to
(13:50):
get in and invest now and reimagine how Americans eat.
So we're doing that with our weef under campaign, where
were as little as one hundred dollars. Now you can
help to build the next nourish in Bloom stores and
also be a part of all of our future growth.
And so you know, you have to give credit to
the Jobs Act for allowing this to be possible, because
(14:10):
prior to that you had to be an a credited
investor to even be able to get in on these
early deals. That now, through that bill that was passed
allows for you know, anyone who has a desire to
be able to invest and start to continue to build
wealth for their families. And so, you know, the community
really stepped in and said, we believe in you, and
(14:30):
if you can do this, you're going to really have
the ability to impact, you know, the way we access
food for generations to come. And that's why the first
store was open, that's why the second store is open,
and that's how We're getting all of our stores open,
and so even when they say no, we're going to
show them why this is a model that definitely works.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
How can we follow nourish and Bloom so.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
You can follow us on Instagram, on LinkedIn. You can
definitely learn more through our Wefunder campaign just nourish and
Bloom or nourish and Bloom fully spelled out across all
platforms and our website for sure.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Jilea Hemmings, thank you for keeping our community healthy.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I'm Vanessa Tyler. See What's Happening in Blackland. There will
be a new episode every week.
Host
Vanessa Tyler
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