LaRayia’s Bodega is an Afro-Latina, Woman, and Queer-owned social enterprise based in Atlanta. Launched in Los Angeles, LaRayia’s Bodega is the country’s first plant-based, grab-and-go market to address food access and justice issues. Since its founding, LaRayia’s Bodega has expanded its focus to include its ethically-sourced product line featuring signature coffees and organic smoothies, original vegan recipes, and culturally-dynamic merchandise. In 2022, LaRayia’s Bodega partnered with the world-famous Ponce City Market to launch a flagship store in downtown Atlanta. The store receives 150-300 customers daily and has quickly become a local favorite, especially among artists, creatives, and professionals from Atlanta’s booming entertainment industry.

Love Without Reason is a global movement spearheaded by LaRayia Gaston that inspires a culture of giving and uplifts our shared humanity through initiatives that nurture the mind, body, and soul. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Love Without Reason is widely known for Lunch On Me, its free plant-based food program that worked to eradicate hunger in the Los Angeles Skid Row neighborhood. At its peak before the pandemic, Lunch On Me served 10,000 meals a month, operated regular community events, and provided free wellness services – entirely self-funded and powered by a network of over 2,000 volunteers and local businesses. In 2022, LaRayia and the team relocated Love Without Reason to Atlanta to establish a global base of operations. The Garden will serve as the new home of Love Without Reason and provide a much-needed space for gathering and a commercial kitchen for its Lunch On Me program.

The Garden will be the new home of LaRayia’s Bodega and Love Without Reason. It’s a 6,000 sq ft multi-use space that will feature a plant-based cafe, bar, lounge, art gallery, conference room, hydroponics rooftop garden, and community events space. The Garden will also function as a community resource hub offering wellness programming and events. The Garden will uplift East Point and affirm Atlanta as a new hub for social innovation in the country and beyond.

We chose to build our Garden in East Point because of the community’s untapped potential and its need for social and economic opportunities. East Point is a suburban city located southwest of Atlanta in Fulton County, Georgia. With a population of 38,358, over 76% is Black and 11% is Latino/a. In 2021, the per capita income for the city was $15,175. Over 17% of families are below the poverty line, including 30.0% of those under age 18 and 13.6% of those aged 65 or over.

The Garden will create a space for Atlanta’s creatives, artists, dreamers, changemakers, and visionaries to come together to seed the future our world needs. It will create meaningful jobs with liveable wages for members of the East Point community and serve as a nourishing oasis in a well-established food desert. Through our nonprofit partner, Love Without Reason and their Lunch On Me program, the Garden will increase food access to free, healthy, and organic meals for Atlanta’s unhoused and food-insecure residents.

We hope to open by the Summer of 2024.