Greyston Foundation's Systemic Approach to Community Development: A Model for Successful Collaboration
by Kali Saposnick

from Leverage Points Issue 52

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Greyston Foundation, considered a leader in the field of social enterprise, provides a wide array of services to its local community in Yonkers, New York, including healthcare, childcare, housing, community gardens, a technology education center, and an HIV/AIDS program. At the heart of the foundation is Greyston Bakery, a for-profit business that actively recruits and hires staff members with previous difficulty finding employment and that partners with and serves as a role model for other socially conscious companies. Leaders from Greyston will be giving a keynote presentation at the 2004 Pegasus Conference in December. In the following interview, David Rome, Julius Walls, and Wendy Powell discuss the organization's holistic approach to collaboration, based on the idea that community development is a systemic challenge and that many issues need to be addressed simultaneously in order for lasting change to occur.

In most organizations, collaboration means "the act of working together." At the Greyston Foundation, employees take this meaning to a whole new level. Set up as a mandala, the Buddhist word for circle or system, the foundation operates as a collaboration of businesses, programs, and services that address community renewal and poverty issues. Collaboration takes place within the organizations among staff members and clients, among the organizations, and with the surrounding community. This framework links the parts to each other and to the larger system.

A Collaboration Unfolds
How did this unique type of collaboration unfold? Greyston's roots began with the founding of the Greyston Bakery in 1982 by Roshi Bernie Glassman, a Jewish Zen Buddhist priest with extraordinary persistence, commitment, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Once he decided to locate the bakery in a depressed neighborhood of Yonkers, New York, he perceived the need to create jobs for people in the community who were "hard to employ," including those with spotted employment histories, prison records, past substance-abuse problems, or homelessness issues.

From its inception, the bakery instituted an "open hiring" practice that continues today, in which anybody who applies for a job has an opportunity to work, on a first-come, first-hired basis. Employees who make it through the three-month apprenticeship—during which they have to show up for work on time, perform the job, and have a reasonably appropriate attitude—are automatically made permanent employees. According to David Rome, senior vice president of planning at Greyston, "The idea is that we judge people based on their performance in the operation, not on their background. The bakery now has about 60 employees, all but 5 of whom came in through that open-hiring process, some of whom are now senior or mid-level managers in the company."

As the bakery expanded so did Greyston's services to both its workers and the larger community. Bernie and his followers found that providing jobs to the community wasn't enough—workers and others also needed housing. With much struggle and ingenuity, they figured out how to acquire funding and get governmental agencies to work together in a way that allowed Greyston to build permanent housing and a childcare center for formerly homeless families. Because of the ongoing expansion of the organization's mission, in 1993 the Greyston Foundation was formed as an umbrella for all of the Greyston organizations, with the goal of providing them with centralized management, fundraising, real-estate development, and planning services.

Sharing a Purpose
Greyston now comprises four interrelated organizations: the bakery, healthcare services, child and family programs, and real-estate development. According to Julius Walls, CEO and president of Greyston Bakery, core to the collaborations' success is people's agreement on a collective purpose. For example, he points to the bakery's biggest business success, its 15-year relationship with Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc., which was forged from the two companies' shared sense of social mission. Greyston is the sole supplier of the brownies for one of Ben & Jerry's top-selling flavors, Chocolate Fudge Brownie™ Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt. A majority of the bakery's sales comes from that single product; in turn, the bakery historically has contributed a portion of its earned income to the support of the foundation.

"While this alignment with other businesses is crucial," says Julius, "equally important is the bakery's shared mission with its employees. I see this as another collaboration within Greyston. The company provides opportunities and resources to its employees so they can be successful not only in the workplace but in their personal lives. They then have to be willing to accept responsibility for their happiness and success." One of the resources the bakery provides is the PathMaking program, designed to help people with both personal and professional transformation. Julius explains, "Unlike an HR program, which usually focuses on fostering a better work environment or better employees, PathMaking aims to support personal growth. This has the effect, probably, of improving the workplace and the individual. But its primary focus is on supporting individuals so they can move their lives forward, regardless of whether it affects their productivity."

As a result of this type of support, many of the bakery's staff members are highly committed and moving toward self-sufficiency. For example, a few years ago, when the bakery surveyed its employees, it found that 68 percent of them are engaged in some learning activity outside of work, such as getting a G.E.D. or advanced food sector training. Another indication of success is that, when people leave, many do so for positive reasons. Some employees move on because they're choosing a better opportunity for their lives, not because of a problem in the workplace.

Wendy Powell, Walls's assistant and the bakery's office manager, is a prime example of how individuals can thrive by taking advantage of the organization's resources. At Greyston for almost 10 years, she started as an assistant bookkeeper at the childcare center and moved to the bakery, where she has worked for five years. "Initially, I stayed because I didn't feel I had any other choice," Wendy says. "I was a homeless mother in need of housing. I also needed a job. I found both at Greyston. I've continued to stay because I like the work that Greyston does. And most of the skills I've acquired in these last 10 years I was taught on the job from various people who helped me move along and grow. A big part of that is I wanted to learn, but I was also provided many opportunities to grow here."

Balancing Social and Business Goals
This focus on balancing its collaborative social and business mission is what has enabled Greyston Foundation to achieve continual growth. For example, about a year ago, the organization opened a retail bakery/cafe in downtown Yonkers, which features Ben & Jerry's ice cream and its own line of top-quality cakes and tarts. In addition, with the help of Greyston's real-estate division, the bakery just constructed a new facility one block from its original location. This $10 million project involved a public-private partnership with the city that allowed Greyston to reclaim a brownfield (contaminated) site that had lain dormant for years.

Greyston's success has set an example for both businesses striving to incorporate social responsibility in their operations and nonprofits struggling to find funding. As David explains, "There's this funny kind of mismatch between the needs of poor communities and a very complicated bureaucracy in government that controls the funding. Somebody has to be the broker between these two. That's part of what we do and why we have succeeded. We've brought highly talented people with the social commitment who could figure out how to access the funds and put together complex public-private financing packages."

"Overall," says Julius, "we're an entrepreneurial organization. We determine a need, such as housing, and then respond to it. We face a lot of the challenges that other businesses face in terms of understanding and getting our product to market. Perhaps what makes us stand out is an understanding of both the complexity and simplicity of the work we do. It is complex for all the reasons people think—scarce resources; the need to measure success and failure; a diverse population with, therefore, diverse circumstances. But it is also very simple—we provide support and guidance to people who want to move their lives forward and are willing to take action."

Kali Saposnick is publications editor at Pegasus Communications.