How do you feed a family of eight on a tight budget?
The question presented itself to Kevin Campbell of Cumming, when he and two friends were downsized from their jobs in cardiac telemedicine. Campbell has six children. His co-workers Jeff Flacker and Ken Gertson each have five children. They each knew their savings wouldn't last forever, so last fall, the three men sat down to map out a second act.
In February, their brain power produced Community Foods, a wholesale food distributor that delivers food direct from farm to consumers.
Their goal, said Campbell, was to provide easy access to high-quality food at the best prices they could manage. Customers go to the website (www.mycommunityfoods.com), place orders for upcoming products -- which include natural, hormone- and antibiotic-free chicken, beef and fish -- pay with a credit card, then pick up their orders at a common delivery point on a specific day and time.
In only four months, the business has grossed in the high five figures, Campbell said, and with 600 customers in 34 Atlanta area cities, Community Foods is growing exponentially. The biggest challenge has been convincing customers that pulling up to a 20-foot truck parked in a church parking lot is a perfectly legitimate way to buy food.
"Some people think this is odd, but you are buying great food at an amazing price. Why would you not want to do this?" Campbell said.
Community Foods sells in bulk with prices in the range of $1.79 per pound for 40 pounds of chicken (about $72 total) compared with grocery store prices, which typically run in the range of $2.99 per pound or higher. Word-of-mouth has been the company's best publicity with local bloggers and community groups spreading the word.
"I have had a great experience with Community Foods," said Lisa Samples, 45, of Conyers, who started her Life With Lisa blog in 2008. "I tried some chicken from another company that works here in Atlanta, and the chicken I got from Community Foods had less fat on it."
After Samples picks up her chicken, she and her son spend an hour prepping the meat -- thin cut or chunked -- before wrapping it in foil and placing it in freezer bags. It takes about four months for her family of four to get through a 40-pound box of chicken.
"I don’t eat chicken every day, but it is my go-to meat," said Samples, who used to buy chicken at Publix or Kroger before discovering she could get it from services such as Community Foods for a lot less. "When times are tough and you have to watch your money, these are really great alternatives," she said.
Food ministries with a distribution model similar to that of Community Foods -- buying in bulk to offer discounted foods that are then distributed through a network of churches -- is nothing new. Several have operated in the metro area, including Angel Food Ministries, a Monroe-based not-for-profit that suspended operations last fall while under federal investigation.
Though Community Foods donates cases of meat to the churches that host them or to local food banks or charities, it is a for-profit operation.
Community Foods maintains office space at Regus in Cumming, but the three men spend the bulk of their time on the 20-foot refrigerated, leased truck, which they drive from one town to the next, meeting customers and filling orders.
On a Thursday afternoon in Marietta, cars are parked haphazardly in the lot of Mount Paran North Church of God. Campbell and Flacker are ripping cardboard boxes of frozen chicken to help divide 31 cases in a group order. The church-based group, organized by Tonya Neilson of Marietta, has long known the power of buying in bulk.
"You never know if you might be out of a job or if there will be a storm," said Denise Swales of Roswell, who arrived to collect orders for herself and her three adult children. Though she and her husband are empty nesters, she has found it helpful to buy and store certain food items. After just 30 minutes, the truck was almost as empty as the parking lot.
Though Campbell and his co-founders had hoped to use local farmers to source the food, they weren't able to find farms that could deliver the 5,000 to 15,000 pounds of chicken, beef and fish they needed to satisfy demand. They also wanted to make sure the meat was all-natural and that they could offer it at a price substantially lower than store prices. Their products come from farms around the country.
Rolling with the fluctuations of meat prices has been one of their biggest challenges, said Flacker and Campbell. It is one of the reasons they sometimes delay on offering certain meats. While fish is next on the list -- tilapia for $3.29 per pound, wild-caught Alaskan salmon for $6.79 per pound and wild caught cod for $5.99 per pound -- the erratic price of beef has kept it out of the mix for now.
"People are so price sensitive to food these days," Campbell said. "If we are only bringing 20 to 40 cents difference per pound, we aren't going to do it."
In the end, not only did Campbell and his co-founders figure out how to feed their families on a budget, they landed on an idea that has provided hundreds of locals an affordable way to feed their families as well.
