This Millennial Is Eliminating Food Deserts in South Los Angeles, One Vegan Meal at a Time

Olympia Auset, longtime vegan and the founder of South Los Angeles’ first organic produce service SÜPRMARKT, launched a campaign on May 22 to purchase and reopen one of the oldest and only health-food stores in South Central LA, after its recent closure. South Central LA is home to 1.3 million residents, but only has 60 grocery stores which places it in the category of “low-access community” (or a “food desert”) according to the United States Department of Agriculture guidelines. Auset aims to bring her organic produce service to a brick-and-mortar location and expand to offer affordable vegan meals from local artisans such as Baba’s Vegan Cafe, healthy snacks and packaged foods from plant-based brands such as Beanfield’s and Field Roast, and sustainable household goods from companies such as Dr. Bronner’s. Auset launched SÜPRMARKT in 2016 after she grew tired of spending two hours on the bus to have access to healthy food, as a way to provide weekly produce pop-ups and delivery services to low-income communities in LA’s food deserts. This physical location would allow the company to serve at least 1,000 Angelenos per week. “Health disparities kill more people than anything else in our country and 24 million Americans live without fresh food access,” Auset said. “It is time to take a bite out of hunger by establishing healthy affordable food options in our hoods.” The campaign has a few days left to meet its goal, but Auset is “100-percent committed to making this a reality.”