How Sweetgreen helped this corner store with a healthy transformation

Now this is collaboration. It’s the story of a 20-year-old family liquor store situated in Los Angeles’s Hyde Park neighborhood, where the nearest grocery store is a mile away and fresh, healthy food isn’t readily available. That is, until the store's second-generation store owner saw an opportunity to re-make it into a place where community members could buy healthy groceries. She worked with a local nonprofit called Los Angeles Food Policy Council that helps small retailers make healthy shifts. Fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen also helped in a big way—it lent its expertise in branding, supply chain operations, merchandising, retail logistics and waste tracking to help transform the store, which reopened as Hank’s Mini Market in April. All parties involved hope this can be an example of how big businesses like Sweetgreen can, instead of taking mom-and-pop stores out of business, collaborate with them. Read more at Fast Company…

This startup says it wants to fight poverty. A food stamp giant is blocking it.

About 1 million food stamp recipients are using a smartphone app called FreshEBT to manage the balance of their accounts, plan their grocery tips, find coupons and even apply for jobs. The app is a product of Brooklyn-based Propel, a tech company with major backers like Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz and The Durant Company, an investment company started by NBA player Kevin Durant. But lately, the app has been unavailable in many states because of challenges working with Conduent, a government contractor that handles the food stamp networks in 25 states. Conduent maintains the database that the app connects to and says its networks have been overloaded with data requests from the app. It’s also started competing with an app of its own. But, “Propel’s early success suggests there is opportunity for innovation in the low-income market,” The New York Times writer Steve Lohr writes. Read more at myAJC…

Herbalife Ltd announces name change to Herbalife Nutrition Ltd

According to the MLM nutrition company, its name change better reflects its leadership as a global nutrition company. Read more at Reuters…

Buying the farm: Investors may save beloved Slope health-food store, owners say

Brooklyn’s beloved Back to the Land Natural Foods is in jeopardy as it struggles with sales and foot traffic, but owner David Basham says more than one angel investor has expressed interest in saving it. The store has been open since 1971. Read more at Brooklyn Paper…

Genetic sleuthing bolsters food poisoning searches

Food safety scientists are using genetic analysis to detect pathogens in food linked to the food poisoning outbreaks—like recent ones caused by contaminated romaine lettuce. The new approach has the potential to stop foodborne illness before it spreads, and to connect the dots between outbreaks. Read more at ABC News…