Food chain

When Shannon and Michelle Dobbs, former owners of Reno’s Five-Star Saloon and Rise Nightclub, decided to get out of the nightlife industry several years ago, they felt ready to channel their energy into a new direction. Now, as co-founders of a non-profit called On Common Ground, the Dobbses have found their cause—working to bring healthy and affordable food options to low-income families and individuals in the Reno area.

The Dobbses, who coincidentally both hail from Albuquerque, New Mexico, met after moving to Reno. Shannon spent time in the military before becoming involved in the nightclub industry in Las Vegas and Reno, and Michelle’s background includes business management and program development. They first became aware of the problem that lack of access to healthy food poses to the local community during their time as downtown business owners.

“When we were in downtown Reno doing work, we’d see people struggling,” Shannon said. “Our customers, our employees, everybody that we knew was struggling to try to make ends meet. They were trying to eat healthy and take care of themselves, and there just weren’t the resources available.”

The Dobbses did a bit of research and learned that the problem with access to nutritious food extended far beyond the downtown area. According to the 2015-2017 Washoe County Community Health Needs Assessment, approximately 15 percent of the people in Washoe County—including more than 26,000 children—are considered “food insecure,” meaning that they lack access to the food they need to live an active and healthy life.

In addition, downtown Reno and many of the surrounding areas are classified by interest groups as “food deserts,” or areas with low access to healthy food items such as the fresh produce that you would find in a normal grocery store. This problem is sometimes compounded by an abundance of cheap and unhealthy food choices from fast food establishments, gas stations and convenience stores.

“Downtown Reno is the largest food desert in our area,” Shannon said. “About 69,000 people live down here, and a lot of them don’t have kitchens. A very large percentage of them don’t have transportation, which means they have to get on a bus or do something to get to the outskirts of the city to get to where the food is. That is a ridiculous amount of effort for people that are struggling to survive and that have limited time capabilities.”

Initially, the Dobbses reached out to companies like Scolari’s or Trader Joe’s, to see if any were interested in putting a store into the building formerly occupied by the Rise Nightclub. They soon learned, however, that downtown Reno did not meet these companies’ minimum requirements for profitability. They then investigated the option of starting their own grocery store, inspired by a successful non-profit grocery located in Boston, Massachusetts called the Daily Table. This idea, they realized, had merit.

In 2016, the Dobbses founded On Common Ground, initially planning to focus their efforts on creating a non-profit grocery in downtown. With the aid of a board of directors, 13 interns from the University of Nevada, Reno, and more than 30 community volunteers, plans have expanded rapidly.

At present, OCG is in the process of organizing a complex network of food security measures for Reno and the surrounding area. In addition to the non-profit grocery, which OCG plans to install in the building formerly occupied by Rise Nightclub on Sierra Street, they hope to operate two mobile markets (think grocery store meets food truck), which will transport food to outlying food desert areas.

“This has been done a couple of times around the country already,” Shannon explained. “They take a shuttle bus and convert it into a grocery store on wheels, and send it out into areas of the community that don’t have grocery stores.”

A food distribution warehouse, location still to-be-determined, will serve as OCG’s primary food storage facility and processing plant. Here, it will also operate a food-preservation commercial kitchen, which will accept and process donations of food that would otherwise go to waste.

Other plans include educational classes on cooking and nutrition, and a seasonal “produce fair,” similar to a non-profit farmer’s market, which will be held in a public location downtown. Community support, involvement and feedback, said Michelle, are key in all that they hope to accomplish.

“The really neat thing about OCG is that it has to be community based,” Michelle said. “We cannot provide food in the food desert areas and have people select nutritious food unless we show them how to cook it, and unless we have food that matches people’s personal and cultural preferences.”

For funding, OCG is seeking grants, as well as support from the local community. They have partnered with community organizations to hold fundraisers such as a fashion show at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northern Nevada, and a “pay what you can” dinner at Moon Rabbit Café. On April 19, they will hold a five-chef cookoff, in which five local chefs will compete to cook the tastiest dish using several food pantry staples. In solidarity with those who do not have access to a kitchen, the recipes must also be modified for cooking with a crockpot, hot plate or steamer.

There is still much to be done to bring OCG’s goals to fruition, but for Michelle, the issue of food security is something she connects with on a personal level.

“I was a single mother for 14 years,” she said. “Making ends meet, working two jobs, going to school, struggling to find child care and feed my kids at the same time. The fact that one in four kids in Washoe County do not know where their next meal is coming from, that hits home.”