Carl Johnson

Pastor | Cooperative developer | Food justice leader

Carl D. Johnson is recognized as a visionary leader committed to ensuring marginalized communities have access to healthy, culturally relevant foods. He is transforming food access and economic opportunity on St. Paul’s East Side through faith-rooted community building, radical hospitality and visionary entrepreneurship. A former gang member and addict turned pastor and community leader, Carl is the founder of the East Side’s first Black-owned grocery store, Storehouse Grocers and Coffee, as well as the George Washington Carver Cultural Center, a thriving community hub. His leadership spans worker-owned cooperatives, youth mentorship, workforce development and civic engagement. 

His mission is to create safe spaces, restore dignity and build wealth in historically disinvested communities. With the Bush Fellowship, Carl will seek certification in Cultural Intelligence, pursue ancestral and entrepreneurial pilgrimage and finish his degree in entrepreneurship to scale community-owned food systems.

What change are you working to create?

I want to end everyday hunger and scale food sustainability across St. Paul and beyond. I believe the solution to food insecurity begins with love: seeing everyone as your neighbor, feeding them and building community from there. My vision is to connect youth, formerly incarcerated people and those overcoming addiction with jobs and pathways to wealth through the food industry. When young people cook food and say, “I made that,” they gain self-agency. If you can invest in people’s food, you can invest in people’s futures. 

Why are you the one to lead this change?

I’ve lived the hunger I now work to eliminate. I’ve served on city boards and created businesses that not only feed people but hire and empower them. I built Storehouse Grocers and the G.W. Carver Cultural Center to offer affordable, culturally relevant food and space. During COVID, we served 10,000 meals. We host birthday parties for kids, provide jobs for young Black, Indigenous and people of color, and convene Black business owners for mutual support. I bring people together across faiths, races and sectors because I know that change begins with relationships.