Ariell Ilunga had a fervent vision. The Los Angeles native wanted to open a Black-owned one-stop grocery store that provided fresh, high-quality foods. Her father was an avid foodie who exposed her palate to a variety of foods, which allowed her to develop a taste for quality cuisine.
“He would clip newspaper articles out of the LA Weekly and take us to new restaurants,” says Ilunga. “In 2019, I was working for a nonprofit organization doing food access work, and I just wanted to open up a grocery store for a lot of reasons, so I quit my job of six years to pretty much work on this project full-time.”
Ilunga knew that the cumbersome process of her project would come with tremendous challenges and the need for substantial funding. “It was $100,000 and it is pretty challenging to come up with that kind of money. And then the pandemic came and I was very discouraged,” she reveals. “I am overworked, a mom of two small kids and suddenly I saw myself being every woman.”
Feeling disenchanted with an overwhelming sense of despair, Ilunga put the project down. “I remember distinctly sitting in my backyard drinking a bourbon at 3 pm while my kids were running around,” she recalls.
“My best friend from college, Carla, had passed away and had lost her battle with uterine cancer. I was in a phase of grieving her death and discouraged about the project. Suddenly, Carla’s voice comes through as clear as day, saying, “You better get back to work; you can’t give up.”
And that is exactly what Ilunga did, literally. “So, I picked myself up and got back to work,” says the former employee of Sustainable Economics Enterprises of Los Angeles.
“I did not have a name for the project and I wanted it to feel familiar. I wanted the name to feel like home and not be a trendy thing.” Ilunga pondered on what to name her community-focused establishment.
While having a conversation with her mother one evening, her mother suggested to name it Carla’s Fresh Market. “I thought that was the best idea ever,” Illunga says. “It is named after a really good friend who always believed in me and keeps me going.”
By Dr. Shanessa Fenner
