Letter from Eden Enterprises’ CEO, Shareef El-Sissi

Greetings,

We are all adapting to the unfolding reality that is the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of the mandatory Shelter In Place (“SIP”), the Garden of Eden team has implemented sweeping operational changes. We want to take a moment to say thank you for adapting with us. Change is difficult and especially challenging under these unprecedented circumstances. We are in this together. It is hard to imagine that just a few weeks back, 2020 was in full swing and the cannabis industry had its eyes on 4/20.  Now, five weeks into the SIP, amidst a lifestyle disruption, it is more important than ever to enjoy the highs in life. Although these are trying times for us all, I remain optimistic that our normal way of life is not lost and gone for good.

 “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together”
- Vincent Van Gogh 

As one of California’s licensed cannabis companies, we were deemed an ‘essential business’ authorized to operate during the SIP. We understand the importance and privilege of continuing to serve the East Bay in this time of peril. Through years of support from our loyal customers, Garden of Eden has established a synergistic relationship between our business and our community. Every customer that makes a purchase at our store is investing in us. When the customer invests in us, we in turn invest in our staff and community. 

Before the whiplash set in, Eden contributed our best practice policies to our cannabis colleagues. In order to advance meaningful social distancing, we migrated 100% of our customers to online ordering overnight and followed that up with a contactless online prepayment solution. This could only have been achieved with the help of our partners and vendors, who followed our lead in responding to the crisis. Eden is privileged and proud to be the first cannabis company to offer a true 1 click-to-pay solution when it was needed the most. In an effort to protect our own staff with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), we turned to the networks of brokers that sprung up overnight to help connect essential workers across the globe with the needed equipment. Secure in the knowledge we had protection for our own staff, we broadened our motives to include our community by adding an additional 6,000 FDA-approved masks to our order. We are actively getting those masks into the hands of those who need them most, our health workers.  The domestic hospital system relies on a procurement process that involves net terms, but the demand for PPE has given rise to a sellers market void of terms.

 If you are an executive or founder of a cannabis business, you are well tooled to navigate the world of international commerce. We invite you to join Eden and use your industry skills to connect PPE supply with the demand coming from within your home communities. Reach out to your local city and county officials to find ways to make an impact in your community - small efforts lead to big impacts. We have an opportunity to demonstrate corporate responsibility that goes beyond selling essential cannabis. We are not alone in our efforts. We are fortunate to be joining companies like Glass House Group, Cannacraft, AYR Strategies, and more who have made meaningful impacts to their local communities. If you want to help and are looking for guidance or a partner, you can email us directly info@edenenterprises.com. 

The staff at our operational facilities are on the frontlines interacting with hundreds and thousands of customers daily. Without the essential worker, the essential business can no longer function and subsequently fails to serve its community. As owner operators, we place critical importance on implementing proactive measures to provide a safe place to work and shop. We have been agile in our response to our employees starting with unlimited sick leave for all staff who did not feel comfortable working day to day operations, without question. Escalating to an hourly base wage increase of 25% during the SIP for all staff with exposure risk. And culminating with the creation of the Eden Help Desk, a work from home program so hourly staff members who live with immunocompromised family members did not have to decide if they should file for unemployment or risk a loved one's health. Every action has a reaction, like providing catering to staff from local restaurants during the SIP, helping those businesses stay afloat. We will continue to seek out and provide enhanced employee protections such as immunity boosting health kits ahead of the 4/20 holiday. It is important to remember our immune system is our primary defense against a virus; designed to function in the absence of masks, gloves, and face shields.

Four Twenty Twenty Twenty will go on, just not in the grand dramatic style the industry was planning. Together we will overcome the challenges we are facing. Together, we embody the California spirit of innovation. EDEN has embraced the spirit of adaptiveness during our 17 year history and thanks to your patronage of our business, we are able to invest in our staff and community. We will continue to make those investments especially in times of instability, providing support for the industry, our community, and the Bay Area population at large.

In Good Health and Spirits,

Shareef El-Sissi
CEO