Roy Buckingham began his career in the grocery store business stocking shelves at an Austin Whole Foods nearly 15 years ago.
Now, he is managing the Whole Foods on Lower Greenville with plans to increase the store’s involvement with local schools.
Buckingham became the store team leader this summer at the health food market at 2218 Greenville. The job involves “a little bit of everything,” he says, but his main job is to increase sales.
He also performs a balancing act to keep the community, customers, investors and employees happy without harming the environment, he says.
“My primary function is to make sure each of these stake-holders is getting what they should be getting,” he says.
The community should benefit from whatever Whole Foods can give, Buckingham says. The father of a third-grader, this 38-year-old emphasizes helping our students.
“Schools don’t receive enough support,” he says. “I’m really eager to find new ways to connect with the schools.”
Some of Buckingham’s ideas include giving donations to schools and having students come on field trips to Whole Foods, where they can learn about diet and nutrition, he says.
Since his arrival at Whole Foods, Buckingham has started a Scrip Program to help schools raise money. Schools are sold Whole Foods certificates that act as alternatives to money, Buckingham says. Parents can buy these certificates at full price from the schools for groceries.
Buckingham returned to Texas from California last spring, where he worked for Whole Foods for six years. He helped open the Greenville store in 1986 and has come back to it to take over for the former manager, who transferred to Chicago.
“I really love this area of town,” Buckingham says. “It’s an interesting area to work in because it’s so culturally mixed.”
For information about Whole Foods school programs, call 824-1744.
