Eat Well, Be Happy
The mantra behind Debra’s Natural Gourmet and the community built around it.
Debra Stark | Debra’s Natural Gourmet | 98 Commonwealth Avenue, Concord, MA
At the heart of the West Concord Village sits the highest grossing sales per square foot natural grocer in the country, Debra’s Natural Gourmet. Walking in you are immediately struck by the intense and inviting smell of spices that wafts through the warm and bustling store. There are vegetables to your left, hot food ahead, and health supplements off to the right. There are people inspecting shelves and staff offering assistance. It’s busy, but not crowded, with enough space to find what you need and sit down at a table to enjoy your lunch.
Now a bustling and prominent enterprise, Debra’s opened in 1989 to little fanfare in a space only a third of its current size (occupying only the middle of the building it now fills). At the time of its opening, the natural food industry was relatively obscure, with would-be visitors walking by looking nervously in the window before hurrying away. Debra says that at the time, people expected the store to be filled with “hairy Birkenstock wearers.” Fortunately, some “health nuts like her” took a chance and went in. There they were greeted by Debra’s bright smile and eagerness to share her world. With more people coming in, the shop became less intimidating to new patrons and a growing resource for everyone. Debra delights in people with a curious mind who think, “Well this is interesting and different, let’s go and learn and see what it’s all about.” Debra likened the experience to a story she heard about group behavior and how we feel more confident as part of a group.
If you have someone standing alone at the bottom of a hill, they may look at it and feel scared or defeated as the hill appears to be too high to climb. However, if a group gathers around them and lends their support, the hill looks smaller and they feel they can climb it.
In the beginning, Debra did everything. She was the cook and the teacher with most of the current recipes originating from her, her mother, and her grandmother. Debra boasts that her food is not only better for you but that it tastes better too, packed with flavor from her primary ingredients: garlic, pepper, cinnamon, ginger.
I have very good taste buds!
While she worked, people would come and present her with spices, asking her what they could do with them. To this, Debra would say “I don’t know, let’s find out!” then proceed to test new recipes until she had something great to share (this process resulted in her now three cookbooks!). The same principle is true in the more medical aspects of her business. People came in asking for help with various ailments and Debra would turn to research or personal experience to help them find answers.
As people had more questions, I became more aware that we were building a community of people who wanted to learn! What I could show people was a way to keep them out of the emergency room, feeling better physically and emotionally.
Debra comes from an Eastern European (Russian and Polish) household, growing up primarily in Maryland, Florida, and eventually Massachusetts (following her father’s career as an engineer and missiles expert) with frequent trips to visit family in New York. New to the states, her grandmother started cooking with ingredients never before available to her (which contributes to the unique recipes you can now find in the store). In the 1940s, one of the family members was given a death sentence from cancer which her mother would not accept. She returned to Europe and studied holistic medicine. Back in the states, she converted everyone to this lifestyle which kept the ill member out of the hospital with a life better than the doctors anticipated. This diet also began to improve the lives of the rest of the family and so this is how Debra grew up. She recalls while laughing that her mother would hand her father a bag of pumpkin seeds every morning; “We won’t have any prostate problems in this house!” To her, natural food has always been better: “it tastes better, it feels better.”
What sparked this drive and need to share her life with others? Well, a childhood trip to the dentist. In sixth grade Debra told her dentist about her mother’s grain-filled bread. He asked to try it. On a return visit he was offered some, immediately telling her mother, “I’ll give you $40 a loaf and I want two more next week.” Debra quickly recognized that she could make a living in the food industry sharing her family’s way of life.
Some time later, in 1989, having never lost sight of her dream, Debra took an opportunity to open a store in West Concord.
When asked how she learned to run and operate her now very successful business, Debra replied, “By making as many mistakes as possible of course!” For instance, convinced that everyone would love them as much as she did, Debra’s very first purchase was for 6000 pounds of olives straight from California. Six years later she finally ate the last one.
I have to tell you that our family ate olives at every meal until they were gone!
Since then her store has became a platform to educate people about better nutrition. Having been the cook and primary resource for 15 years, Debra has now (mostly) stepped out of the kitchen and into the shop, relying on her staff of 57 to help continue the spread of her message and mission of community through food. Debra’s positive impact on her community is evidenced by her success in business and the excitement that is clear on each face coming and going.
Opening this store has helped Debra to achieve personal fulfillment. She is a pillar in a growing community who trusts her. “I have so many people, customers, and staff whom I would never have met were it not for the store. I have many friends whom I would never have met were it not for the store...You need that connection, that community with people to be happy.”
We would like to thank Debra for sitting down with us to share her story and purpose of spreading cheer and community through food.
If you’d like to learn more about Debra and her natural food mission, please visit her website: debrasnaturalgourmet.com
Debra has three cookbooks and a brand new book, The Little Shop that Could: a Retailer’s Love Affair with Food, available for purchase on Amazon or on her Facebook page.
Available on her website are 72 episodes of her cooking show, Eat Well, Be Happy, which she says was an absolute blast to make and which has become the second most downloaded show on public access! In order to achieve this, Debra asks that:
If you are from Subaru or Viking River Cruises and would like to sponsor her cooking show, Eat Well, Be Happy, please get in touch!
If you are Good Morning America and would like to talk about the book on TV, please get in touch!
She needs a sponsor to pay for a professional crew on her show - “We have a lot of great work to show and would really like to step up our game!”
Debra Stark
debra@debrasnaturalgourmet.com
See other things happening at Reasons to be Cheerful!
“As people had more questions, I became more aware that we were building a community of people who wanted to learn! What I could show people was a way to keep them out of the emergency room, feeling better physically and emotionally.”