We are so excited to finally announce that our founder and board director, Russell Shields, has become our CEO!
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for fresh and affordable food has increased, and as an organisation our responsibility to our many communities has grown. Therefore, Russell Shields has jumped on board to help the team meet the growing demand and expand our reach.
We sat down with Russell to ask him a few questions about the Community Grocer and his new role.
What does it mean to become CEO of a company you founded? What does TCG mean to you?
I established TCG to improve access to fruit and veg across our communities. I wanted to use a social enterprise model to disrupt and improve the current emergency food relief system. Our focus at TCG has always been on the people we exist to serve and to value dignity, choice and nutrition. To now be leading the organisation in a full-time capacity is both a recognition of all of the hard of work of many team members and supporters over the years and a truly inspiring opportunity to do so much more - especially during these uncertain times when food access is a real struggle for so many people from all walks of life.
As the new CEO, do you have any exciting new projects install for TCG?
The team and I have actually been working on a Community Grocer Gift Card. We have a purpose built tech based platform that will enable anyone to access a Grocer market and redeem a unique QR voucher code either by phone or card. This model will enable community health centres to provide clients with access to fresh fruit and vegetables for a healthy diet.
As CEO how do you envisage the Grocer helping the broader community post-COVID?
We hope to play a vital role in ensuring communities have access to quality affordable fresh fruit and vegetables in a welcoming and localised setting. With our communities feeling the effects of such widespread job losses and reduced income support, price is a big factor in people being able to feed themselves and their families healthy fresh produce. Our markets are 60% cheaper than major food outlets and we know that over 90% of our customers `feel a sense of community' when shopping at TCG. We have managed to keep most of our markets trading throughout these challenging times and we plan to increase our reach and impact as we grow the business and support more people in need. Our focus is always on our impact and the evidence to date shows we are making a really positive change to the way food can be provided to communities and people doing it tough. TCG has a great team in place so we face the future with optimism and a real sense of purpose. The need is growing and our community-driven model has proven to be effective in improving access to fresh fruit and veg for communities across Melbourne, there is a lot of work to be done, but rest assured TCG team is up for the challenge.