Planter Day – Matt Day
#042 – Today we are talking to Matt Day, the owner and operator of Planter Day, a mission-driven plant shop located in Rockridge that is dedicated to destigmatizing mental health and promoting mental health resources. Matt decided to pick some weeds one day after visiting his mom in the hospital while she battled cancer.
The pain and grief from her passing in October 2018 left Matt unable to work and get through his day-to-day duties. He found solace in gardening, however. He and his partner Yumi landscaped their yard and grew flowers and vegetables. Digging his hands into the soil proved therapeutic and he wanted to share that power of healing with others.
“Our primary purpose is for the business is the use of horticultural therapy to help people heal because that’s what plants have done for us – really help us heal through personal traumas through the pandemic.”
Planter Day is located on College Ave in Rockridge. It is more than just a plant store. The shop serves as a community hub for meetings where independent vendors, artists, and chefs can share their products with the community during weekend pop-ups. They also host after hours events – comedy shows, workshops, poetry meetings, etc… They even had a movie and a Covered California commercial filmed there.
Matt is driven by community over profit. He is well aware that he needs profit to keep the lights on and the doors open, but he wants to have a wider impact on the community. They are proud to be a mission driven organization. They donate a portion of all of their sales proceeds to the Oakland based Crisis Support Services of Alameda County. When I asked him about success, he said…..
“Success is in the eye of the beholder. For us, money is not a metric of success. What is more meaningful is that we 1) can provide sustainable income for employees – we have 2 people on payroll right now 2) donate to charity – local charities that provide healing for our community – Yumi and I were both raised in the East Bay and 3) providing a platform for other small local businesses to sell their goods at to no cost to them – we like to open up our space and 4) have a wider impact on the community.”
Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear Matt’s story about how help starts at home.
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