Fresh Food and Fresh Opportunity

Tek is the owner of ABC Mart and partners with the IRC for the Healthy Corner Store Initative.

Photo: Stanford Prescott

"[When] I was a teacher back home… I was arrested and told never to teach Bhutanese children.” 

Bitter melons are one of the unusual types of produce sold by Tek at ABC Mart.

Photo: Stanford Prescott

Tek is a refugee who was forced to flee Bhutan, his home country, as a result of government persecution in the late 1980s. Over 100,000 refugees fled from Bhutan into neighboring Nepal.

“When I became a refugee, I started with the education program of the refugees.” Tek was an administrator of the educational program for Bhutanese refugee students, managing schools in the refugee camp for over 45,000 students. According to Tek, this work allowed refugee children to gain an education despite their situation.

When Tek was resettled in 2009, he started working at Walmart, where he worked for four years. During this time, Tek also worked with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Phoenix through the Interpreter Services program and then the New Roots program. Tek credits his work with the Interpreter Services program as key to helping him start a new business which he opened in 2013: ABC Mart. “The IRC generated a place where I could work another job. [This] helped me in a very big way to establish this store. Otherwise, if I [did not have two jobs] then I [would have] had no funds, no capital.”

Tek stands outside the entrance of ABC Mart.

Photo: Stanford Prescott

Tek believes that local corner stores like his are essential for connecting refugees to each other and their cultures. According to Tek, local corner stores like ABC Mart are “a source for [refugees] to get their food that they were growing back in their country. And then it also becomes a meeting place for the community.”

By providing opportunities to connect over culturally appropriate food, Bhutanese refugees are able to preserve their traditions. “[Most] of the people coming from Bhutan were farmers there. So, everybody who has a home here in Phoenix, they have a backyard garden,” says Tek. He continued noting that Bhutanese refugees are able to feel connected to home through this gardening by “carrying on the traditions of our parents and then growing healthy foods in our own backyard.”

Tek and ABC Mart partners with the IRC as part of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative. As a part of the Initiative the IRC offers the Fresh Fund Program, a dollar for dollar match program for fresh fruits and vegetables available to all SNAP eligible customers. ABC Mart also contracts with refugee farmers in the IRC New Roots program to provide fresh culturally-appropriate produce.

Corner stores that partner with the IRC are able to offer a dollar for dollar match on fresh produce.

Photo: Stanford Prescott

As part of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative the IRC partners with two other local corner stores owned by former refugees and immigrants. While Phoenix is a rapidly growing city, welcoming many new refugees and immigrants each year, food access continues to be an issue. Phoenix’s widespread metropolitan area and lack of sufficient public transportation can make it difficult for refugees and other low-income Americans to access high-quality fresh food. With the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, the IRC is able to serve a high number of customers who may not normally be able to afford fresh fruits and vegetables.

Tek credits the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, alongside other IRC programs, for improving the lives of refugees. “Because the IRC has so many programs, one way or other the refugees are involved in their programs, so it has directly impacted the life of the refugees. They have been doing a wonderful job.”

Support the work of the IRC, including the New Roots Program and the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, by making a donation today: https://help.rescue.org/donate/us-phoenix-az