Meet Natasha Lloyd of ReKaivery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natasha Lloyd.

Hi Natasha, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
ReKaivery Inc. started as a friendship in the Impact MBA (formerly Global Social Sustainable Enterprise MBA) at Colorado State. Audrey and myself Natasha, quickly learned we had many similar passions and shared areas of interest and concern. We spent our MBA researching food systems to understand the challenges and opportunities for improvement across them.

We explored numerous business models which addressed some weak points in the food supply chains. However, as it goes with drafting innovative solutions, many of our ideas had challenges of their own. After graduation, we continued to listen to the community around us, and we realized our business model needed to do three things: Make local food more convenient for consumers to access and purchase, make it more equitable for local suppliers to sell to the local market, bring the celebration to local food through education and accessibility.

We formulated a model where local food was as convenient to access as food from a large grocery store, a model where local suppliers could get fair returns – like at farmer’s markets – without requiring suppliers to work long hours trying to sell their products. We wanted to develop a brand that encourages local food access, friendliness, inclusivity and education. The solution: Sell local food, on a consignment model, out of a renovated shipping container that operates six days a week.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Building ReKaivery has been a wonderfully bumpy, curvy, winding journey. ReKaivery’s unique model does not fit within traditional boxes, and with that has come many challenges that stem from us being “different.” Our way of selling items, our close relationship with suppliers, the architectural uniqueness of the food hub, and many other elements are traditionally unseen within the retail food space.

Naturally, this has made various departments and organizations nervous. We’ve had to work really hard to understand which ideas won’t be met by brick walls. Multiple times we’ve had to regroup and come through the other side with a functioning business model which benefits the community in the way we intended from the beginning. There are many rules and regulations in place, and for a good reason. Health and safety are obviously non-negotiable and we’re thankful for the people who implement such standards for the better of the public! However, there have been other boxes that we’ve felt needed some updating, which can be challenging and time-consuming!

Truthfully, we’re still having some of these conversations even now. Some of our progress is in our hands and some of it is not! Ultimately, we’re grateful for these challenges because we know it will make ReKaivery’s operation resilient and intentional. And from intention comes great impact.

We’ve been impressed with ReKaivery, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
ReKaivery is making the products of a farmers’ market available to the community every day of the week. We’re bringing convenience to local food by ensuring equitable opportunities for community members to access, purchase and sell local food. ReKaivery achieves this convenience through a food hub, a sort of an extension of a farmers’ market, in the sense that we’re open when the farmers market is not. Physically, the food hub is a renovated, solar-powered shipping container, which will be colored with murals on the outside and filled with beautiful local foods on the inside. Customers can enter ReKaivery’s food hub with similar expectations to a grocery store, though our shelves and fridges will contain all locally sourced items. ReKaivery brings a new sense of autonomy to farmers and suppliers. Traditional retail provides challenging returns to hard-working farmers, so we’ve created an innovative model where suppliers rent shelving and ReKaivery sells on consignment. ReKaivery stores promote and sell on behalf of the local suppliers, but suppliers control pricing, a unique element in the retail food space.

ReKaivery’s entire brand is built on inclusivity and accessibility. Access to local foods is not a privilege, it’s a right. We’re constantly learning, growing, and working with wonderful, local organizations to ensure we’re the best advocate for inclusivity we can possibly be. We’re proud to be built for the community, by the community.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Flexibility. ReKaivery’s first draft wasn’t perfect. In fact, while we’re on a “refined draft” now, we know this isn’t the ribbon-wrapped version of ReKaivery. We spent over a year exploring and drafting business plans and worked through many that we felt addressed the necessary portions of the food supply chain. One of our earlier models was one that connected local farmers to local restaurants. Seeing that the virus had put stress on the foodservice industry, we had to be flexible and pivot to something different. We saw flaws in our ideas and were open to change. That hasn’t stopped.

Even now, when faced with these continual challenges, we’ve had to remain flexible to move toward the final outcome. Flexibility, mixed with a pinch of stubbornness (there’s a few things about ReKaivery we’re not willing to compromise on), have been important characteristics for ReKaivery.

Contact Info:

• Email: natasha@rekaivery.com
• Website: https://www.rekaivery.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rekaivery/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rekaivery/
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/QXe3Ufk-q8Y