Episode 23: En2action

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: Andrea Baker, Founder and Pooja Ranani Director of Programs, En2action

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host. 

Series Introduction: This episode is part of our series exploring COVID-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in San Francisco. We started the series back in April 2020 during the height of the first phase of the Covid 19 pandemic and the Shelter In Place requirements. Over these past nine months, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic meltdown have wiped out millions of jobs in both the nonprofit and small business sectors as well as shuttered tens of thousands of small business operations.

The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, small businesses, and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross-section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the global pandemic and economic depression.

Show Guest Andrea: I think the silver lining for our vendors have been that it has really caused them to be very creative. And to literally turn on the dime and to really be listening to their customers and thinking about what else could they offer? How might they package an item differently so that they can sell it through the box you know. What are the words that they need to use? Because you know, you don't have a customer coming up to your beautiful chicken wings that is on glazed and looking yummy. How do you describe that? Right? In writing

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode, our featured voices are Andrea Baker the founder of both Andrea Baker Consulting and the nonprofit En 2 Action along with Pooja Rah – Johnnie who leads the organization’s operations and project management. I first worked with Andrea back in 2015 in the production of our two-part series “Doing Business in the Bayview” which I recommend that you listen to for more context on her team’s efforts in working with the Bayview Hunters Point community economically and culturally to reinvent their community. You can find the two-part series in our archives on george koster dot com, click on voices of the community and on the archives.  

Andrea and Pooja have been working tirelessly in the bayview hunters point community of san francsico from our last great recession in 2008 to today’s covid-19 pandemic and economic meltdown. Throughout this time Andrea and Pooja have helped to incubate, cultivate, advise and promote food and beverage entrepreneurs as well as artisans in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. Their work with small business owners enables them to execute their dreams of controlling their own destiny and provide an economic legacy for their families.  

The backdrop of today’s interview is covid-19’s impact on the small business restaurants that make up the economic and cultural fabric of our neighborhoods and their struggle to stay alive. From April to June, the city of san francisco’s sales tax revenue dropped to $30.8 million, down 43% from the previous year, according to the city. Restaurant and bar sales were down 65% as indoor dining was prohibited, while food and drug store sales were down 8%. Among those indoor venues, restaurants were easily the riskiest — four times riskier than gyms and coffee shops, according to the model by Stanford and Northwestern University scientists. But the researchers also found that restaurant occupancy caps of 20% could cut infections by as much as 80%.  

The City of San Francisco is once again acting quickly to reduce indoor activities as the covid 19 case rate in San Francisco went from 3.7 to 9 per 100,000 residents and Grant Colfax, the city’s director of health, said that San Francisco’s daily average of 80 new cases is, up from 32 at the end of October. Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday, November 10th that San Francisco restaurants will have to close their indoor dining rooms Friday, November 13th due to the rise in coronavirus cases.

Show Host George: I'm joining remotely via zoom by Andrea Baker and Pooja Rajani from Andrea Baker consulting. I'd like to start the interview with asking Andrea ah little bit about, why you created the En2action non-profit and then how you're working with small business and art organizations?

Show Guest Andrea: Thanks for that George and thanks for having us. So, you know, that we, for years did work in, the Bayview, the Fillmore the Excelsior as Andrea Baker Consulting, meeting a lot of the same, needs and hopefully doing a lot of the same work that we're talking about, but we were not a nonprofit.

We were a sole proprietor ship and that made it extremely difficult for us to access funds to do the work we really love and want to do in community. And so, it took me all of 12 years, George, but we got there, and we created En2action. And so, En2action while Andrea Baker Consulting still exists En2action does about eighty-five, ninety percent of what we did, previously.

So that worked, that we, started over 15 years ago, working with small businesses and arts organizations in neighborhoods, again like the Bayview, Excelsior, the [00:02:00] Fillmore we started that, because we wanted to connect small businesses with resources and opportunities. And we just thought that it was really important to get them for one, to formalize their businesses, if they weren't already formalized and to be able to take advantage of opportunities that came around. And so, I guess I would give examples, like we came up putting small businesses and arts and culture together. So, having the live music, be performed in restaurants along the third street corridor, that allowed us to put musicians to work and to bring business to, the restaurants along the corridor. We also early on created the big summer music series where, for a four-to-six-week period, we had musicians going into restaurants every day, you know, along the corridor. And again, that was another way of bringing arts and, small business together.

And also, I just want to highlight that district 10 is really considered, you know, an artisan remember we've got the PDR's right. Production, distribution, and repair. When we have a lot of artisans, folks making chocolate and cakes and food and all of that stuff. And we have the largest artists’ colony in the country, 300 artists at the shipyard. So, we wanted to try to bring all these wonderful elements of the Bayview together.

George: Thank you. That was great. I'm going to turn to Pooja and, I know you're the operation, ah Ninja in the background making all of Andrea's visions work and they are quite big sometimes, which is great. But you know, here we are in the middle of a pandemic going on month 10, how has COVID-19 impacted your ability to work your operational magic?

Show Guest Pooja: Well, I think like everyone we've all been working from home and, you know, one of the things that we had been faced with was it primarily all of our interactions were face-to-face. You know, a lot of them involve a lot of like, basic, interpersonal skills that are much more like physical and very hands-on.

And so, we had to also transition to sort of like learning all of these things virtually, and sort of being very creative and thinking about how we continue to engage businesses and support, all the organizations that we worked with virtually. And so, some of the things that we've learned has been sort of transitioning to a virtual platform, looking at, you know, virtual meetings as well, just like everybody else has. And we transitioned Bayview Bistro, which was actually much more of a physical location, which was, you know, primarily on like 4101 Third Street. So, we took that operation and we actually had to stop the physical, site. And then we transitioned now to a virtual platform where we got all the vendors online onto Shopify through the Bayview Bistro Box.

So, we basically started working with vendors, tried to get them to curate products that were much more packaged, you know. And also, like showcase their products, their ah skills, and then put it in a box format where we were able to come up with like a weekly food box that featured like, you know, well when we started with five vendors and we're continuing to add more vendors.

To these, weekly boxes, and we've got like different kinds of boxes. So, we started with, you know, obviously omnivore and a plant forward box, and now we've launched the date night box. So, it's just a smaller box. And then now we're also selling a lot more the vegan boxes.

So that's sort of where we've transitioned the Bayview Bistro. And then also learning how to sort of do a lot of our work online by trying to see, virtual meetings, virtual platforms, looking at engagement tools that can, you know, avoid zoom meeting fatigue, or like virtual meeting fatigues. So those are just some of the things that we're doing in the middle of like, COVID just like everybody else. We're all learning and being nimble and flexible.

George: Yes. I think the key word I've heard many times is pivot. So, people are getting tired of pivoting. Maybe they can all become ballerinas or something.

Andrea: So, Andrea, why did you create Bayview Bistro Project and then how can people help the Bayview Bistro project?

Andrea: So, when we first started Bayview Bistro, the intention was always to create an opportunity, for our Black and Brown micro businesses through a racial and social equity lens. So, we had a vacant space on third street and our goal was how could we create an opportunity for three or four times a week for pop-ups, caterer’s food trucks that again were primarily from the Black and Brown community, to have enough opportunity to be able to vend. And we thought this was a good thing because, and we worked with, the social impact partnership program that SFPUC had put in. So, this money did not come from SFPUC. But SOPUC was very much ahead of their time and created a program where consultants on the project support, neighborhood projects.

And so, we got support through that program to support what we call the Bayview Bistro. Open Wednesday through Saturdays essentially. And so, we started that again to give opportunity too are smaller businesses that did not have a brick and mortar space. We also hope that through making that opportunity available one, we could provide great technical assistance and help some of our businesses who still needed some help in formalizing their businesses. And we also wanted to be able to introduce them to the larger City economy. So, most of our vendors have become, City suppliers. Which allows them to get in the queue and hopefully get orders, catering orders, and other orders through the City. So that really was what pushed us and that was behind putting together the Bayview Bistro. Your second question was how can people support? Did you ask me that?

George: Yes, how could people support? So back to Pooja's point you've, kind of commoditized and, you know, put, some food or dinner in a box idea so, can people order online? Can they call direct? Where do they go?  Since you're a non-profit now can people donate?

Andrea: We want them to do all of those things. So, thank you for that, because we say order Bayview Bistro Boxes for you, your friends, your family. Order, maybe a Bistro Box and give it as a gift.

We are coming out with a Thanksgiving and Holiday Box and over the last, six weeks, we now have a Friday night Date Box order ah Date Night Box and give yourself a break or order it for somebody that you love. Donate to our program. Tag your friends and tell everybody you know about us. And I do mean everybody, you know, about us, call us to order for catering.

We've been working with all of our vendors and they have now created individually packaged meals because we are in COVID-19. So, we're not doing buffets anymore. Not at this point, one day, maybe again. But you can order catered meals from us, and we encourage you, to do that. So, all of those things will help our Bayview Bistro Program and always, always tag and support our vendors.

George: So, I think, two final questions. One Andrea you been at this long time, along with Pooja working on the, Bayview corridor, obviously with the Mayor's Office of Workforce and Economic Development. So, over your decade plus of doing this work, what would you say has, been your, biggest impact on small businesses and art organizations, especially alone, the whole Bayview, District Ten corridor?

Andrea: Well, you know, I feel George, like one of the biggest impacts we've made actually over the last 10 years for me is bringing residents as you pointed out and thank you for dating me. It's been more than a decade of working in the Bayview. And when we started, I feel like one of the greatest things that we did, and certainly I didn't do it alone with others as well was getting our residents to come out.

And discover our small businesses, our artists and makers, our artists, and our musicians. So, way back when, you know, with PBOH, we started things like "Bayview Connect", which were monthly gatherings that where we would host Bayview businesses and we would have music and an artist and that sort of stuff.

So, I really do feel that led from "Bayview Connect", we went to "Community Tuesdays" with Radio Africa. I think you might even remember that. And that was an initiative that was, focused on how do we bring residents out for a $10 fabulous meal? I still believe it's the best deal yet in San Francisco. And we were able to do that.

And then we continued encouraging developers and city agencies, hey, when you come into this community, you need to order from these great food and beverage businesses you need to support our businesses so that they too can thrive. And then I think five, almost six years ago, we ended up doing the "Bayview Uncorked" event and "Bayview Uncorked" is intended to shine a bright light on all of our Bayview artisans, our beverage makers our artists and musicians.

I really feel that for me. That is something that I've been really proud of. I think, you know, we kind of started that effort of getting our neighbors and residents to look around and see that they had these great treasures in the neighborhood. And since then, they've like been supporting them perfectly. We love that.

George: Thank you, that was great. I'm going to turn it back to Pooja and ask, out of the pandemic and the proverbial economic meltdown. What are some of the good things do you, think could come out of it? Or that you see coming out of it? To help both, small businesses nonprofits, especially District 10, which has been, you know, hit pretty hard with the pandemic.

Pooja: I think if anything, there's been more light and more sort of like, an awareness, right. Of small businesses, and how people really need to support the small businesses to, continue to contribute to the economy.

And also, from a diversity standpoint, you know, there has also been an increase in sort of like a racial or sensitivity to like racial injustices. And so, we feel like that also has been something that is sort of positive, that has come to, you know, help all the businesses that are part of the Bayview. And hopefully, you know, people can support businesses of color, entrepreneurs of color. And I also think actually, you know, and I know Andrea addressed, this is sort of like, we're all learning to be, I think compassionate, you know, with each other in a way as businesses as, you know, nonprofits and we're learning to collaborate a lot more as well on ideas, sharing resources, and opportunities. And I know Andrea also had like a thought, so I will let her take as well,

Andrea: I think what Pooja just said is very true. I mean, and we all know that unfortunately. The killing of George Floyd, right? For many, many people, not just Black and Brown people, but people all over this country to really sort of say, there is systemic racism, and we need to do things differently.

So, I do, hope that that can be a sustained sentiment. And I think all of the things that Pooja talked about are true as well. I also think, because I look at this always from the point of view of our vendors. I think one of the wonderful things, you know, they say this is certainly a cliche, but there is a silver lining to every cloud.

And I think the silver lining for our vendors have been that it has really caused them to be very creative. And to literally turn on the dime and to really be listening to their customers and thinking about what else could they offer? How might they package an item differently so that they can sell it through the box you know. What are the words that they need to use? Because you know, you don't have a customer coming up to your beautiful chicken wings that is on glazed and looking yummy. How do you describe that? Right? In writing. So, I really think it's, caused our vendors to really discover even more about themselves and their product and to create new avenues of opportunity.

George: So, an opportunity to reinvent. Andrea and Pooja any last final thoughts?

Andrea: Well, I think you've covered a lot of them. I'm just. So happy that you were able to talk with Rome because you see how important this work is, that we're all doing and how important it is to continue to create opportunities for Black and Brown businesses.

George: Well, thank you, Andrea Pooja and Rome for sharing all of your work today, I'm going to make sure that, we'll share out all of your social media, on our websites and in the broadcast itself.

And please stay safe out there as we all deal with, what has become this very strange, new normal,

Andrea: Indeed, thank you so much, George, for having us on. We really appreciate it.

Episode Outro - Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voices of Andrea Baker and Pooja Rajani of both Andrea Baker Consulting and the nonprofit En 2 Action. Andrea and Pooja have launched the Bayview bistro project to help food and beverage entrepreneurs as well as artisans in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. To find out more about the Bayview bistro go to bay view bistro sf dot com and to find out about the services of en 2 action’s services go to en 2 action dot org

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view, and personal stories from the voices of change-makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in this series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses and staff members, featured in this series please go to my web site george koster dot com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series. After listening to these stories we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada, along with Mel, Michael, and Lila at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to george koster dot com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. Please subscribe to Voices of the Community on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us with feedback and show ideas at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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