successful in that, i think that we have. we try to reward them well, give them benefits. i hope you are all taking your benefits. 70% of our employees to take health care. another 15% or so get it from their family, another 15 percent so young and foolish. we hired from the neighborhood. we had an agreement with the mayor's office. somebody said to me over half of the staff comes from the subject code. [applause] we are really happy about that. -- this zipcode. even with this many people in one of our stores -- which i wish we could have it every minute every day, all with carts full -- it is very unusual to feel warm. the reason why is because of these doors. normally, the chillers keep you

cold, but this is an initiative that we are using to store all of that energy. it is an environmental initiative we are introducing into all of our stores. the beauty is, it significantly reduces the energy we use in our refrigerators, and customers like it. they think that the food is fresher, bolder. it is an absolute win-win. -- colder. i just want to take a timeout to say to my staff here, to everyone here, we have never opened up a better store. it looks fantastic. thank you. [applause] in a minute, we will watch shop for schools. for every $20 that you spend,

you can donate $1 to your local school. it is a fantastic thing for the local community. it doesn't solve all of the problems, but it gives them some cash for whatever that school needs. i am now going to welcome the mayor. [applause] the reason i hesitated is because -- i said i would. i am going to thank the mayor's office yet again for coming. it is a privilege, a real privilege, to be in this magnificent city. and it is a privilege to have been helped in our entry to this city by that great institution, the mayor and the office of the mayor.

it would be delighted for you to say a few words. [applause] >> thank you. it is an extreme pleasure to be here today. at the beginning, how many times have you heard a ceo of a grocery store chain personally open up a store in a neighborhood? we all remember those days where you might have been able to see the actual owner of a neighborhood store be there, personally. these days, you might see a corporate representative. when mayor newsom and the office of economic development went to everyone of those corporations to ask them if they would please consider opening up a store on third street in the bayview, they all said no. this guy said yes. i want to thank mr. mason for

your vision, for your commitment to this neighborhood, understanding -- as sophie knows so well. we have had many hours of discussion about neglect and not caring. today, what i feel with this store opening, with the commitment that has been made, i feel it is all about health, neighborhood vitality, it is all about jobs, and it is about fulfiling old promises in this city. this is what this store represents. it is such a wonder that we can all collaborate in this effort to fulfill a promise to this neighborhood. we are with you every step and we will continue to work along first street and the bayview to make sure that this neighborhood never feels neglected. you are part of this city and the poll service of this grocery store represents fulfilling that

promise. in those years that i was city administrator, we had a lot of discussions with the board of supervisors. i know david chiu is here. we have had discussions about commitments. certainly, sophie, on and on about what we have not fulfilled. we have done it here with this grocery store. there has been a history of the effort made. some of the other stores did not want to come here. but fresh and easy made that commitment. we went through so much to not only make sure that this promise was fulfilled, but we also had to do a lot of homework. at the beginning, the footprint of the building, the property owners, they did not have the footprint. they only had a couple of 5000 square foot flats that had to be redone. we had to have the board of supervisors consider all of the

things that the grocery store had to be able to sell in order for it to be full-service. that was led by the full board in recognizing that. there was a whole family of city departments working together on one of the most important things, which was local job creation, something that i have been trying to honor very much, particularly for this neighborhood. to know that in june of this year, in collaboration with the workforce development division of the office of economic development, we have put together, with community partners, renaissance parents for success, ycd, and others, hunters point family, put together at the bayview opera house, a hiring day focused on this particular store. over 250 people came out to put their applications in. and from that recruitment day,

there were 40 people that were hired for this store. 52% of them were from 94124. that is a remarkable achievement. [applause] thank you for that persistence. and then another 8 from other san francisco neighborhoods crossing the city to total 72% local hire for fresh and easy in the bayview. that is another remarkable achievement. that is to be celebrated. it is a model for the rest of what we do in the city. it can be done, and we know that. we just have to get a success story out here to make sure that it can happen. so poor billing a promise of jobs, neighborhood vitality, health of our neighborhoods. that is what this store represents. now this store is not the only

thing that we are going to do. it is part of a movement that we started years ago, with gavin newsom's promise, but all was working in city government who have educated ourselves the history of failures in this neighborhood to say that we are going to turn this around, and to make a heartfelt commitment that we want to make sure that we do everything we can to turn this around. this store is leading that effort, and along comes other opportunities, because we are working with the third street corridor project. we are working with the bayview merchants to make sure that everything is being done. and this is another example. you will see this neighborhood promotion brochure at the end of every aisle in this grocery store, so that not only when you shop here for your groceries, you will be able to find where

you get your hair cut, where you get your shoes repaired, where you can get all the other things that this wonderful neighborhood has to offer. that will be right in this pressure so that we join them in advertising all of these. thank you to renaissance for being here today, because they're all part of this effort. [applause] it is a whole neighborhood. not just the store. a whole neighborhood that will be a life. today's story will be about fresh & easy and they're opening of this fantastic full circle store. but i will tell you the news for tomorrow. the news for tomorrow is the rotisserie next month, opening right down the block. another set-in restaurants. and then, by the fall, you'll have brown sugar restaurant. and you'll have radio africa and kitchen restaurant. they're already underway, and they will begin to open. that whole third street corridor that we now are at will be enlivened with all these

commitments, commitments that we've made, support we have given to the office of the mayor and through the workforce development office with and in cooperation with the board of supervisors to really rebuild this neighborhood and help with the job creation and help with the businesses that need to thrive along here. and the job development will continue in collaboration with this neighborhood. so i would say here today that it is just another part of fulfilling a promise, promises that, for this neighborhood, have been long in coming. but when we do, we need to celebrate this, and we need to build on fulfilling promises. that is what we want to do. that is why you have state divisions here, like kurt schultz with the human services division, our board of supervisors here, the mayor here, along with business. to do that and fulfill that collaboration with all the other city agencies working together. again, it will always be -- it

really takes a whole village of effort that goes on in order to rebuild a whole community and fulfill all of the promises. i am glad to be here today, glad to celebrate this. i am so thrilled that tim, you have fulfilled a long lost promise for this neighborhood, and you have done it the right way with hiring local people here so that they can have an build upon hope and have something for their families. i also want to think the police department here as well. we have a member from our babies station here to keep everybody's safe, making sure we have public safety as well as a thriving economy along the corridor. thank you very much, and let's celebrate this. [cheers and applause] >> thank you very much, mr. mayor.

i find the best thing to do with promises is to be very slow and consider it to about making them and then to keep the ones that you do make with a passion. there is an expression i quite like -- it did not watch my lips, watch my feet. if i make a promise, you'll see me commit to it. [applause] and we absolutely want to help you improve the cities of california, and we want to help kurds schulz, the regional director of the u.s. department of health and human services, and improve the diet of california. and i would like to hand it over to him. >> thank you. i have followed the mayor and now tim again. i like that. thank you for the microphone. i want to say a couple of things

this morning and try and be brief, which can be difficult. first of all, on behalf of the obama -- obama administration, i am presidential appointee and my boss is secretary kathleen sebelius. she knows that i was going to be here this morning. on behalf of the secretary of the u.s. department of health and human services, i want to congratulate the bayview community. i want to congratulate fresh & easy and san francisco, so give yourself a round of applause. [applause] you know, we hear too often the term these days food desserts. 10% of our communities and united states are considered food deserts. that means amenities like bayview, who now have ensured, working with fresh & easy, that you are a youdest no more. there is access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food.

today, what this is all about is eliminating food deserts and putting things through and doing things in doing things well. the one thing we need to recognize about the community is that -- how many of you are members of the southeast to access working group? look at all these folks. this is what made it happen. sophie's leadership, david, everybody who is here. but you know what, i am proud to work for an administration, for president, and the first lady who has made the elimination of childhood obesity a number one priority. right? [applause] and i am proud to work for a secretary and administration, joining this community in not only prioritizing the need for access to fresh fruits and vegetables, but you know what, enacting health care reform that addresses very much the same thing.

let's fight and eliminate health care disparities, and let's, number one, fight chronic health care conditions and rhythm of our communities by getting access to fresh fruits and vegetables. so thank you to all of you who are supportive of health care reform. [applause] on want to do a personal store for one second, because i think it brings it all together when you think about the discussion about food deserts and health care reform, because it is really grounded in the community. many of you here will remember -- i have to say i am old enough to remember. i just heard 49. [laughter] i had to take a breath in. [laughter] ok, i can tell you one thing about fresh & easy, region 9 is 50 million people. i have been as far west as guam

and as far east as phoenix. fresh & easy is in arizona, nevada, and california. so fresh & easy when i & easy, i want to say because i know it, because i have been nine committees draw at arizona, nevada, california, and this region and i have seen what it has done in committees like baby. i want you to think back for a second. anyone remember meant this in the late 1960's in the early 1970's? at that point, i had a memphis accent when dr. king was brutally assassinated. i remember going with my mother as part of our jewish organization and synagogue, and we went into underserved parts of memphis, tennessee and delivered fresh fruits and vegetables. this was 1968 and 1969. and it is about time in this country, and it is about time that we have leaders like fresh & easy, but it is also about

time that communities like bay view and the city, mr. mayor -- thank you. david, thank you. sophie, for your leadership, thank you. it is time that bayview gets recognized for seizing what we have all known, and that is that communities come together when we do things like this to make sure that it's not just us, but our children and grandchildren can now not have to walk, not get on buses, not have to struggle and not have to start to get access to fresh fruits and vegetables. so i want to say congratulations to all of you. i hope you'll think ahead in the future, as i think all of us are doing. i cannot help this morning but thinking back to being a 6-year- old and a 7-year-old and hoping that one day we would have organizations like this of communities and organizations like fresh & easy that all came together to make this all happened.

i am very, very proud on behalf of secretary kathleen sebelius to be here. congratulations. this is the second i have seen the city -- we know it is all spreading. but the mayor made a good point. it is called jobs, jobs, jobs. it is got access to fresh fruits and nutritious vegetables. so let's open the store, huh. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you very much, indeed. it would be wrong as not to allow sophie maxwell not to say a few words on this great occasion. thank you. >> wow, this is a really great day. it is like having a baby, since 2007. [laughter] you know, and now the birthing. as a lot of us know within the last 24 hours, that is when it really starts coming. and finally, this baby is here.

i want to thank all of the proud parents. a lot of community people who are here that really helped to make this happen. it is not as if bayview in people in this area have not been fighting for a long time. we just have not been heard. we know about fresh fruits and vegetables. we know what we need. but we were not hurt. i want to thank the community first. i want to thank fresh & easy for taking in seizing the opportunity. i want to think many people in the city's office to hurt us and did not stop until it happened. as was mentioned, they had to assemble things and get everything. and having a store for us was not in the mix. which would only make sense if you are building thousands of units of housing that you would not have a decent store for people shot in, but you know how it goes. in the bay view, it is different. finally, we have come to where we should be, and i think this is a store that is more than

fitting for bayview hunters point. this is the kind of store that we should have. and this should not be the last store. it took 20 years. it has been 20 years for a full service store to open in this district. it should not be another 20 years. it should not be another 20 years. [applause] and let me also said that what is good for this community is also good for the city. they're not doing us any favors. the favor you're doing is for this city. everyone should have fresh fruits and vegetables. that is what makes a good city. for one community not to have it means that your city is not good. this makes san francisco hole. so i want to thank everybody for all that they have done and understand that you need to do more. this is just the beginning. everything that happens -- that has happened in the bay view has been a huge drama. i mean, other people have things

like, we're opening a store. with us, it is a huge drama. it should not be that way. we did not have that kind of energy all the time. [laughter] but if we needed, we will get it. i want to thank all of you for making this happen, especially fresh & easy having to come from over the sea to open up a store in bayview. thank you so much for taking this journey. [applause] >> thank you very much, indeed. our final speaker is angelo king, and of the baby a project area committee which works on redevelopment in the area. -- which works on the bayview project area committee, which works on the redevelopment in the area. [applause] >> first of all, i am chair of the project area committee. we're the advisory committee to the redevelopment process. which basically means that we have people that selflessly give

up their time to go through the details of the development of this community. in that sense, this makes us an authority in terms of the history of how things have gotten here. we have very talented people on that committee. one of them is commissioner richardson right here. [applause] we have a former planning commissioner and human rights commissioner that sits on our committee. we have lawyers. we have contractors. and these people live in this community and give up their time to go through the details to get here. we were going to put a freeway right there so we could connect the stadium. and we said, well, no, we should not do that. we want to do something bigger. but really, today, i want to thank the pack for guiding the process. but really today is about -- we have finally got this thing done. because for all of you that have

ever gotten in your car and had a good trader joe's -- ok. for everybody who had to get in your car to go to andronico's -- if they placed a store here, that would probably be in better shape. safeway did not think we were good enough. lucky did not think we're fortunate enough. and look, i loved supersavers. nobody cuts up ox tails like that. i am a community official. on saturday, you see me out there with my kids. i am officials. ok. so i love sam over there at super save. ok? come on, now. he is ok. he is giving his act together. we work with him. but let's be honest. if you wanted some healthier

snacks or some fresher chicken without chemicals, did that plays exist in bayview? n no. -- what? no. so you had to get in your car and go to that place. we did not have an option. it did not make any sense. this is a community of over 40,000 people isolated. we cannot go any further east. and yet, we were here. so now we do have the store. and what to say something for, you know, the people that are unhappy. one of the things that the president said during his trials and tribulations in washington that struck me is that the enemy of the good cannot be the perfect. ok. the enemy of the good cannot be the perfect. we opened up a store here, and this is not even good. this is fantastic.

ok? [applause] and you need not to be ashamed to tell people that. how many times we went and begged safely to come here, and they turned their nose up at us. come on now. you cannot be afraid to tell them that. and i want to thank ycd and all the people that worked on this job situation, because you guys did a fantastic job again. go ahead and clap. [applause] because i love walking into a store when my own people serve me. lowe's, thank you very much. home depot cannot seem to hang in there. lowe's can ride on in there and picked up all the stuff that home depot had made waves to get to, and now they have a store taking south city's money. and you know when you go in there, you see people that live

in this neighborhood working here. am i lying? so are we doing the right thing? are we trying to be our brother's keeper? wade, a return to be our brother's keeper? for those of you that our officials and working on this, you take this seriously, because i live here. and when i go to sam's store, it is because i am neighborhood guy. you know yes a part of the pack. you get sick, what is up with that? and i can say, yes, it is 50% higher. then had to bring in people from some other stores because they knew how the store ran. as we go along, we will get some more people. we crave the conduit. when they have a human resources situation, taking all the family. [applause] last but not least, what to say that we're doing a fantastic job in terms of economic

development. that is an ambiguous term you here, like improving capacity. you do not know what it means anymore. but when you get the confluence of economic activity that produces a kind of harmony that takes off and s energizes into real capitalism, that is what we're talking about. these small little things -- little things that kept happening. then you're going to turn around and somebody is going to tell everybody that bayview is the place to be, but you were here when the tipping point started to attend. you're here to watch it. just like the day my son jumped up and said he wanted a mohawk. i was like, what the heck, what? because it got so popular that he wanted one. or the day you realize that your grandmother had a face lift. [laughter] somebody's got to find out late that bayview is the place to be. but you know what, for those of you who stuck around, we already

knew it. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> i, luckily, did not make a promise that he was the last speaker. because andrea from supervisor cohen's of this is going to say a few words. [applause] >> thank you for being here this morning. supervisor cohen unfortunately was not able to be here, but she made the promise that that would come here and personally express to you and the community how excited we are that you are here. we are so thrilled that you are here in bayview. your opening. we're going to be here to support you guys and make sure that this is a successful store. and this, as supervisor maxwell and the mayor had already said, was yucky in the making and

really the result of years of community advocacy to increase access to health the nutritious affordable food for southeastern san francisco resident. so thank you. thank you, supervisor at maxwell, for your tireless leadership on this issue. we cannot done it without you, without the board, but the mayor's office, and we look forward to working with you to make this very successful. tim, thank you. on behalf of the board, a certificate to commemorate your opening. and let's open. hopefully i am the last. [applause] >> thank you very much. that is very, very fantastic looking certificate. thank you. it is very, very kind of you, very smart. we're delighted to be here. i am going to wait to make one final announcement. i will make one or two ladies in this room very happy when we do, and then we're going to open the store. the announcement is that we will open our silver avenue store in the first quarter of 2012. [