INFRA Blogs

In this episode of Common Roots, we chatted with Mary Walsh, Co-Founder of Swamp Rabbit Café and Grocery in Greenville, South Carolina. In 2011, Mary and partner Jac left their jobs to pursue opening a neighborhood grocery dedicated to supporting local farmers and food makers. What started as an abandoned meat processing facility turned into a vibrant, walkable and bikeable community center with an astounding 300 local farm partners.

“For the last 13 years, we’ve been passionately focused on sourcing as the biggest differentiator for us. Local is important, transparency is important and knowing what your food is made of and where it comes from is our top priority in every decision we make,” Mary says. Beyond their deep commitment to local sourcing, making Swamp Rabbit a walkable and bikeable destination has also been a priority for Mary.

Like much of the U.S., Greenville’s infrastructure has been designed with cars in mind. Swamp Rabbit, however, was founded right on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, a bikeway that connects Greenville to the neighboring town Traveler’s Rest. “This bike trail has been a big transformer not only for our business, but for our community,” she says, “it’s given people an appreciation for the value of getting around safely on foot or on two wheels.” 

As Swamp Rabbit has grown and scaled, proximity to green spaces and nature has continued to be a core part of the business. “We have a lot of outdoor areas, and I think if we were more of a business-y kind of business it would just be a parking lot. But we maintain a lot of grassy areas for people to be outside and interact with other members of their community,” Mary says. 

Another strength of Swamp Rabbit’s is their vibrant online presence, including their website and social media channels, which Mary says have been a core part of Swamp Rabbit’s marketing strategy since the beginning. “When we opened, using social media for marketing was still relatively new,” Mary says, “I learned quickly because that’s one of the things you have to do when you run your own business.” She says that she also had a knack for capturing the day-to-day goings on at the store. “I enjoy documenting the foods we make and the vendors we work with,” she says, “so my involvement with social media was really a combination of interest and experience.” 

Mary’s attention and care reach all facets of Swamp Rabbit, especially its commitment to local foods. While Mary says that sourcing local is a labor of love, she also feels that it is well worth it. “We really go out of our way to buy local,” she says “we have weeks where we have 500 individual invoices to pay because that’s how many people we buy from… we joke that it’s the most inefficient way you could possibly buy food. But I think every little step is worth it.” 

Building a rich local food network isn’t without its benefits, however. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, many of the grocery stores in Greenville were wiped out of eggs and meat. “We had some farmers who had generators, and they called and checked in on us. I said, ‘when we get electricity, get here as soon as possible.’ Our electricity turned on at 6 am Monday morning, and by 9 am our milk farmer was at our dock unloading milk.” By focusing on building relationships with local farmers and food producers, Swamp Rabbit is here to ensure that their community has access to healthy, local foods for years to come. 

Listen to the full episode here.