A Seat at the Table: Everytable Thrives on Center for Media and Design's Campus

(Valentin Contreras / The Corsair)

Santa Monica College’s (SMC) Center for Media and Design (CMD) found its first major food vendor in Everytable this February.

Everytable’s mission statement proposes an intent to fight food inequality and was founded on the principle of making a social impact.

Everytable currently has several locations in food deserts around Los Angeles, including Baldwin Hills, Watts, and Compton. These areas are low income communities that primarily serve people of color, and have been neglected from businesses serving healthy food. Limited access to healthy food means that, after a long day at work, residents are often forced to settle with fast food.

Everytable aims to be the nutritious counterpart of these fast food chains, striving to have the same convenience, affordability, and ubiquitousness. In the name of efficiency, all items are kept in ready-to-go containers, meaning that there has yet to be a solution for the high waste issues synonymous with the fast food industry. However, Everytable plans to transition toward 100 percent compostable packaging by next year.

Prices are kept competitively low through the company’s creation of the SmartFridge. These tech-enabled fridges keep stock fresh and secure through credit-card activation, while minimizing the overhead cost of operations. 

Everytable has tried to expand into affluent communities as well, adjusting the price in accordance with the higher income of the neighborhood. This additional profit is meant to facilitate the food desert initiative. However, several westside locations, such as the one at Santa Monica Promenade, and another at the Century City mall have since permanently closed. 

Although Santa Monica does not qualify as a food desert, food options near CMD were limited before the new addition of a SmartFridge lounge. Previously, the only secure food vendors on campus were vending machines. Students would flock to the comparatively expensive food trucks located nearby on Pennsylvania Avenue, which are often crowded by employees of neighboring businesses.

Additionally, overall food insecurity is a concern of many community college students dealing with economic hardship. In a lease agreement facilitated through the SMC Foundation, Everytable will provide students with hundreds of free meals on a regular basis. These meals, as well as a selection of additional food items, will be accessible through SMC’s first centralized food pantry, the Bodega, which is now open next to the cafeteria on main campus.