Jeff Brown strolls near the sweet potato corner where not so long ago a train junkyard stood. He sells dessert where there was once a food desert, few fresh or nutritious products to serve a Philadelphia community of 100,000.
Brown's Parkside ShopRite boasts weekly receipts of $860,000, 22 percent higher than projected. The union shop employs a staff of 260, who earn an average $12 an hour plus health benefits. Brown's the rare entrepreneur employing ex-offenders.

"I would rather hire someone who hasn't worked in eight years but loves people than someone who doesn't but is more qualified," he says. "When hiring, we looked for the people who were smiling. They're motivated."

Brown's goal is to create an oasis in urban places where there is no access to quality food - this in a nation so naturally bountiful that, as Brown says, "we pay farmers not to grow it."

On Wednesday, he went to the White House as a guest of Michelle Obama, sitting behind her during the State of the Union address. He speaks regularly with the president's Office of Urban Affairs. He's told city officials the tax credit for hiring ex-offenders doesn't work. "I tried a hundred ways. You can't qualify." He hired 40 ex-offenders anyway.

There are 23 million Americans who don't have easy access to fresh food. A decade ago, Philadelphia had the second-lowest number of supermarkets per capita of any major American city.

State Rep. Dwight Evans, the Reinvestment Fund, the Food Trust, and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition launched the Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI) in 2004 to attract and fund markets, publicly and privately, in underserved communities.

"We mapped the areas that lacked supermarkets with the areas that had the highest diet-related deaths," says the Food Trust's Yael Lehmann, "and they overlaid perfectly."

A dozen supermarket owners attended meetings. Brown was the only one who initially bit. "It wasn't a toe in the water. I dove in headfirst," says Brown, who built four of his 10 stores through the program.

"Good entrepreneurs are, first and foremost, great problem solvers," says the Reinvestment Fund's Jeremy Nowak. "Jeff has a remarkable level of intellectual curiosity."

Brown's approach is simple, obvious, and rare. Treat people well, give them what they want, and you build a loyal, healthy consumer base.

"In many urban markets, what you get is an adversarial relationship. Everyone is mad at everyone," he says.

"He's revived the neighborhood," says customer Dolores Taylor.

The model translates into better food, improved health, more jobs, government revenue, and fewer people dependent on public services. It's good business.

Brown ambles through the store, hugging customers, hugging staff. They all saw him on the TV with Michelle.

"We haven't had a supermarket treat you like a human being in a long time," says employee Mark Jones, stocking potatoes.

"The problem is that, for the most part, the African American community sees their interests ignored," Brown says. So the fourth-generation grocer listened. He built two meat counters, one halal for the Muslim community. He brought in Delilah's Southern Cuisine. He stocks West African produce as well as Caribbean. And he moves a lot of sweet potato delicacies - pies, bread, cupcakes, bundt cake - all made on the premises.

FFFI has launched 74 stores of all sizes throughout Pennsylvania, in 27 rural and urban counties, at 18 locations in Philadelphia, generating 5,000 jobs. It's a shining success, a national model winning citations from Harvard and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, the Food Trust consults throughout the country, including six Southern states with record obesity.

The Redevelopment Fund is branching out to New Jersey. Brown is considering a market in Baltimore while creating a foundation, UpLift Solutions, to help residents of underserved areas obtain better food, health care, and social services.

Brown is not alone in bringing good food to long-ignored neighborhoods. Pat Burns opened four Fresh Grocer stores in Philadelphia and one in Wilmington through FFFI. "What we've been constrained by is a lack of competition for excellence," says the Reinvestment Fund's Nowak. "The question is: Are you competing to the bottom, or are you competing to the top?" And the stores attract other businesses, like Lowe's.

People tell Brown he's transformed communities. "Having access to eat in a healthful way actually does change people's lives," says the Food Trust's Lehmann. "They're not dumpy places. They're just what everyone deserves."

Or, as Brown contends, "I see myself as a grocer. My job is to serve my customer."