Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudia C. Morales.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I am what is considered a .5 generation immigrant. Born in Mexico, I came to live in the United States at a very early age. My first memory of this country was crossing the border illegally through Tijuana walking on foot through barren land and almost dying of dehydration – at the age of 5. My earliest memories include working alongside my father as a street vendor selling corn on the sidewalk in our neighborhood in South Central LA at the age of 8. I would later on become a regular door-to-door saleswoman selling clothes my mother had made through the age of 12.
I saw my oldest brother and father become “fruit brokers”, they would travel from LA to Bakersfield to purchase fruit wholesale and bring back to sell. They would also become restaurant employees at an upscale local Chinese restaurant as back-of-house staff. This is when I would experience my first transmission of culture through food outside of my own. I also would witness firsthand the inequities experienced by immigrant and marginalized communities. My older brother would move on to become a veteran grocery store worker and spend over 25 years in that profession. I saw him become a leader in the UFCW and active during strikes to promote worker’s rights. This helped expand my perspective on the food system and how it is not built for people who do not have generational wealth, social capital, or institutional knowledge of “how things work”.
Fast forward 35 years later and a successful career in the Nonprofit sector, I felt it was time to take the next step in my personal and professional journey. I decided to go back to school and earned a graduate degree in Social Entrepreneurship, something I felt brought together the things I was looking for: support for community and learning the language that this country operates by – Capitalism and the tools used to uphold it. I believed it to be my responsibility to pay it forward and leverage my privilege as someone who had obtained higher levels of education and training to help make a systemic and equitable change in our society.
During my graduate program, I met my business partner and friend who had started working on the idea of an incubator program to support emerging minority food entrepreneurs. He wanted to equip them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to establish and operate successful businesses that both sustain their livelihood and help the community. I became the lead program developer in charge of designing, creating, and implementing the training program. This led me to dive deeper into Food Justice issues and as a result became a consultant for the Los Angeles Food Policy Council. There, I have helped draft and pass the first in the country policy adopted by the City of Los Angeles to promote economic development through entrepreneurship in food desert communities.
All this is rather bittersweet since in the recent months, my brother has suffered a stroke and has become disabled. As his primary caregiver, I will keep working towards helping him develop a new vision for his future where he can still pursue his dreams of going back to school, exploring his interest in the culinary arts, and traveling. However, the greater task is to work with my community to increase awareness about the injustices rampant in our systems and bring resources to alleviate some of those imbalances. I am interested in working on increasing diversity and representation in the tech industry. Currently, I am collaborating with a tech startup that is developing an app to provide specialized services to SNAP and CalFresh recipients to help them stretch their dollar for buying food. I am also working with a startup nonprofit organization focusing on working with Latinas to gain knowledge and tech skills to help them develop careers in tech.
Has it been a smooth road?
Early on, it was difficult helping me make the transition from a people-centered approach to balancing people and profits. I had to learn how to interpret business practices where they could help the community and not exploit it.
I needed to learn to identify as an entrepreneur and battle the impostor syndrome even though I had always operated as such.
It was hard bringing on board traditional investors to the project since they were looking for higher profit margins and didn’t understand the social impact we wanted to make.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the BLVD MRKT story. Tell us more about the business.
BLVD MRKT is a first of its kind project in the County of LA that brings together the concepts of a shared kitchen and traditional tech incubator programs. We have blended the two to create a food business accelerator program that targets marginalized minority entrepreneurs. Half a million dollars were raised in equity capital and 1.7 million in debt capital.
We are on a shortlist of experts on food businesses in the county and have partnered with a number of local institutions (i.e., a public-private partnership with the City of Montebello, collaboration with the SBDC, funding from Freshworks CDFI, etc.) to serve as a thought-partner and resources to food entrepreneurs.
We are addressing the core issues around successful social enterprises, barriers to entry for minority entrepreneurs, and community/economic development.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
A big shift will require technology adoption for businesses across industry. This means particularly small businesses will need to play catch up to integrate digital tools to help them grow and survive.
There needs to be greater representation from entrepreneurs from communities of color since spending dollars tend to come from those communities and it has been proven that diversity among professional teams tends to result in more creative solutions and products.
Contact Info:
- Address: 520 Whittier Blvd.
Montebello, CA 90640 - Website: https://blvdmrkt.com/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blvdmrkt/
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