A Year Later, the First Nonprofit Skateboard Shop is 'Stoked' and Going Strong

A year ago skateboard entrepreneur and hunger fighter Danny Keith had a vision of putting together his two passions.

He owned Santa Cruz Skate & Surf on  41st Avenue and he worked for two hunger charities, the Santa Cruz County Food Bank and Grind Out Hunger, which he started.

He decided to combine them into a skateboard store in which all the profits would go to fight hunger. Only, what is now called the Grind Out Hunger Headquarters is more than a place to buy retail goods. It gives courses for kids who want to learn video making, art, music and boarding. They pay for their classes in food for hungry kids.

"I'm really stoked about the way it's gone," says Keith, who also works for the Santa Cruz Warriors in corporate sponsorship. "When you are doing something in the visionary stage, you've got your road map, but you don't know what direction it will take.

"At the time we didn't know what the community will support this venture," says the deceptively young looking 43-year-old father of two. "We knew we wanted to impact youth and use action sports and music to capture that.  What happened was the opposite of what we thought, in a positive way. The entire community supported it. The youth have supported it. We have 600 kids signed up to skateboard and support the community and we 
raise between 300 and 800 pounds of food a month."

Keith has signed up big name celebrities to help out including musicians James Durbin, Chris Rene, Tess Dunn, Cruzmatic and the Expendables.  Big wave surfer Nic Lamb and skater Zane Keith are hunger fighters, as well as snow boarder Marissa Hushaw and Warriors basketball player Taylor Griffin. Politicians even hang out there, including Mayor Hilary Bryant and her two kids. Local businesses have also joined in droves.

"We've created these meaningful relationships with businesses that support us including the Black China Bakery, Yogurtland, Village Seaglass in Capitola, Cal Giant, Black Pearl tattoos, the Warriors, New Leaf, Plantronics. All these businesses have come together."

Two directions the community took the program surprised Keith. There is a skate church at the Headquarters and "Fruity Fridays," in which Cal Giant berries donates fresh produce and Keith and crew distribute them to kids.

They drive to local parks and give out fruits and berries, helping kids learn to eat healthily. 

"If you told me a year ago we'd be driving to parks and giving out berries and having these tattooed skaters interacting with kids, I never would have believed it," he says. "But now, everything we do incorporates healthy eating and lifestyle components."

Keith also has homework sessions at the store, where kids get to skate after they've completed their homework. And he shows movies once a week. 

"It's a little bit of what we thought it would be and a lot of what it's created itself to be. We knew we'd get kids in there skating. I don't think any of us thought it would take off to the point where we'd have five programs in the first year and impacting kids on a regular basis.

"The amount of kids we've impacted, the amount of hunger fighters we've taken on, the amount of food we've raised, has all been a huge success. 

"Are we making any money? No, but we are completing our programs and are focused on what we are doing, going in the direction of being more funded. We're sustaining, trying to create an atmosphere that kids can exist in.

"If we can get kids eating healthy and involved in meaningful things and give them something to do, we are going to improve their lives and help solve some of the problems of the last 20 years."