Nonprofit Spotlight: Habitat For Neighborhood Business

Through our work with small- to medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations, we’ve seen firsthand the ways in which these entrepreneurs and their advocates have pivoted in the face of adversity. 

To help further their mission and shine a light on the work that drives our community forward, we will be spotlighting some extraordinary nonprofits with which we have the honor of working -- starting with Habitat for Neighborhood Business in St. Louis.

Here, we interviewed Gladys Smith, PhD -- Program Director of Habitat for Neighborhood Business -- on what their organization has been up to since Spring of 2020, and how our community can contribute to their mission. Read on for more!

Q. Please tell us about the mission of Habitat for Neighborhood Business.

“Our mission is to help restore economic vitality to under-served neighborhoods through mentoring, networking and education for existing and aspiring minority entrepreneurs who have businesses in underserved areas of St. Louis. 

We collaborate with developers, government officials and others sharing our interests in strengthening neighborhood commerce.

Over the years, so many businesses in the community have left. Our goal is to revitalize the business opportunities in these neighborhoods.

We do this through a program that’s of no charge to the business owners, so the community has viable economic opportunities that helps restore the tax base and provides jobs to people in the community.

And now specifically, we are working to help our business owners stay in business during the pandemic, and to assist other minority small businesses in St. Louis city that would benefit from participation in the program.”

Q: How has the pandemic impacted Habitat for Neighborhood Business and your business owners?

“As you can imagine, it has impacted the business owners in our program tremendously. Small -- and especially minority-owned businesses -- have been hit disproportionately hard during the pandemic. Those that are still in business are still struggling to get customers, pay rent and even just stay afloat.”

“So many small businesses are going under. Habitat for Neighborhood Business is working to help them thrive. Incredibly, all of our member businesses were able to stay afloat this year. 

We’ve been working to provide resources and information on available grants to business owners. For instance, we will soon be announcing grants for HNB business owners who applied for COVID relief, administered by undergraduate business students in the Service Leadership program at SLU, and funded by a local St. Louis bank. 

In spite of, or because of, the unprecedented COVID-19 event of 2020 we will end this year with 40 minority-owned businesses in St Louis City underserved neighborhoods.

Q: How has Habitat for Neighborhood Business helped our community since Spring of 2020?

Thankfully, our endowment and funding from the Emerson Foundation has remained intact during the pandemic, so we as the Board and staff of HNB have been able to pivot and focus our efforts to help businesses and the community impacted by COVID-19.

“Our Family Dinner Program was one that was funded by our generous donors. It was put into place immediately in response to COVID-19, looking at the community and the greatest needs. When St. Louis public schools closed, students who relied on school-provided lunches were provided breakfast and lunch to pick up at selected schools -- but, in many cases, their entire families were in need of those, too.

So, Habitat for Neighborhood Business came up with a program to provide dinners to families of these students. Families could visit pantries supplied by area food banks and receive a week’s worth of groceries. 

Through this program, the community was provided over 100,000 meals between April and May, 2020.

There was even some overflow of funding, which went into the HNB Hot Meals program.

It was an opportunity for our entrepreneurs to provide hot meals (via $25 coupons totaling $300 that we provided) to their families from local restaurants who are also within our organization -- Joe-Jo’s Fish & Chicken and Samplings by Ms. Deb at Tripe City.

Earlier this summer, we also catered hot meals for young children and staff at Annie Malone Children & Family Services for several weeks, which also supported a catering business within our organization, Bryan Young's Catering Kitchen.

So through those programs, we were able to achieve two goals: support those businesses, and offer meals to several families in our community.”

Can you tell us about programs that the community helped support this year?

We’ve been working to provide resources and information on available grants to business owners. For instance, we will soon be announcing grants for HNB business owners who applied for COVID relief, administered by undergraduate business students in the Service Leadership program at SLU, and funded by a local St. Louis bank. This program, along with the HNB Family Dinner program and the HNB Hot Meals program, was funded by generous donations from the community. 

Q: Are there any specific initiatives that our community can help support, and how?

“Donors can always contribute to Habitat for Neighborhood Business, and these donations allow us to fund and address the unique issues that are coming up for our businesses due to the pandemic.

Also, our business owners span a variety of industries and if you are in the market for a specific product or service --  whether you need childcare or an event planner, a construction company or a bookkeeper -- please help these businesses stay afloat with your patronage.”

If you are interested in learning more about Habitat for Neighborhood Business, local grants and the entrepreneurs and businesses in their organization, please subscribe to their newsletterhttps://conta.cc/2TMnomT. or contact Dr. Gladys Smith, Program Director, at gladys.smith@slu.edu.