By: Gavin Schweiger, Follow South Jersey Assistant Editor
GLASSBORO — On Saturday, January 10, plant-based restaurant chain Greens and Grains joined with Marilyn Johnson from Facebook group South Jersey Food Scene (SJFS) to celebrate recently opening its Glassboro location with a customer appreciation day and “Meet and Eat.”
The location offered a 25% discount on orders and encouraged people to meet with SJFS group and local community members.
Greens and Grains started in 2013 when Nicole Psounos sold juice cleansers to different places in Atlantic County, and she established the first established restaurant in Ventnor in 2015. They sell vegetarian and vegan food, juices and smoothies in 10 locations in New Jersey, one at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and will soon open a location in Boca Raton, Florida.
SJFS is a Facebook group that Johnson, a Philadelphia native, started to host positive posts and discussions around local restaurants and cuisines in South Jersey. SJFS now has over 220,000 members, and Johnson works with local restaurants to host “Meat and Eats” to bring the community together.
“I’m literally passionate about everything that has to do with food, hospitality, dining, you know, food service, beverage, you name it,” Johnson said.
She is also passionate about helping small businesses, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since opening in December, Greens and Grains is the only exclusively plant-based dining option for downtown Glassboro.
Guests helped themselves to the discount. Sarah Miller, who dined with her daughter, Lucy, bought enough food for lunch that day and lunch for the day after.
A vegan herself, Miller enjoys the peace of mind of a fully plant-based menu.
“You might find an occasional place that has like a vegan option on the menu but then you just get one choice whereas here you can order and you know you can eat it,” Miller said.
Greens and Grains and SJFS already did one customer appreciation event at the Cherry Hill location, and the plan is to run similar ones for any future South Jersey locations as well.
“It [the Cherry Hill event] was a great success and any stores we open that Marilyn can advertise for us will be using this model,” Psounos said.
For Johnson, the event is one step for her mission to give the South Jersey community a dedicated platform to learn about the food of the area.
“I want people to know, like, this is the resource for that. I’m trying to be the top resource for that,” Johnson said. “It’s my love letter to South Jersey.”
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