Jaimee and Chaz formed Hamm & Chaz as an LLC in 2022.
Once the license has been acquired, and renovations complete, all operations will be run from the dispensary site.
Since its formation, the Company has achieved the following milestones:
● Signed a lease agreement for a property located at 747 West Side Ave. Jersey City, New Jersey 07306
● Developed hiring plan and strategy
● Secured initial funding
● Determined vendors needed for the successful operation of the business
● Developed and wrote all SOPs as required for the conditional conversion application
● Wrote business plan
● Wrote regulatory compliance plan
● Hired consultants, legal team, and accountant
The physical plant of the dispensary facility will be 747 West Side Ave. Jersey City, New Jersey 07306. The total square feet of the dispensary will be 2,500. The dispensary is not located near any schools or daycare centers. The facility has a front exit that will be guarded by security personnel during the hours of operation. Cameras will be located throughout the dispensary and will be active 24/7. Cameras can be viewed from all partners' cell phones and computers, as well as from the Chief Security Officer and dispensary manager. We will contract a security company to outfit the dispensary and provide a security plan to ensure the safety of our guests and employees.
Hamm & Chaz has deep, multigenerational ties to the community of Jersey City. Founder Charles Peters’ grandparents, William H. Holloway III and Allie Holloway lived and worked in Jersey City for the better part of four decades. William was born in Jersey City in 1933 and grew up on Communipaw Ave. He attended Public School #24 and Lincoln High School and subsequently graduated from St. Peter’s University. He then earned his Master’s in Business Administration at Rutgers University – Newark and joined the U.S. Air Force in 1950. During his career, he worked as a computer operations manager for Bristol Myers, spent several years working at the Jersey City tax collector’s office, and also served as an accountant and financial advisor to longtime Jersey City Councilwoman Melissa Holloway, (his niece and Mr. Peters’ aunt). William was also the first cousin to former Jersey City mayor Glenn Cunningham. In 1965, William purchased four six-family houses on Woodlawn Ave. and operated them for over 35 years. He was also a member of the Jersey City chapter of the NAACP.
William was married to another longtime Jersey City resident, Allie Holloway, who moved to the city in 1946 and grew up on Bramhall Ave. where she attended Public School #12 and Lincoln High School. She earned her associate’s degree from Jersey City Junior College and her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University – Newark. She spent 39 years as a special education teacher at Public School #31 (Anthony J. Infante Elementary School) and engaged in many charitable and community service activities. She was a member of Jersey City College Women, who were instrumental in the distribution of many college scholarships to many students in need over the years. She also worked for five years for the anti-poverty group, Can Do on Jackson Ave. (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard), where she ran a tutoring center based out of Lafayette Presbyterian Church. She lived with William on Forrest Street until 1969.
Mr. Peters’ father, Tyrone Holloway, was born in 1959 in Jersey City at the Margaret Hague Center. He attended Public School # 34 and graduated from St. Peter’s University in 1982 with a degree in marketing and data processing. An avid basketball player, he grew up taking the bus to Bergenline Ave. to play basketball. The years of practice turned into two years as the starting point guard for the St. Peter’s University team. He also managed his father’s Woodland Ave. apartments, handling rental payments and property management.
Hamm & Chaz will take a proactive role in economic and social affairs in Jersey City. A representative from our team will be present at the monthly city council and environmental commission meetings to stay engaged with city leadership and the larger community.
We will organize one “clean up” day each month in which a team of volunteers will spend two hours on a Saturday or Sunday picking up trash and recycling along roads and parks that are within walking distance of the dispensary location. We understand that it is often the little things, the small contributions, that end up making a big difference in bettering the community, and keeping our neighborhood clean and free from litter seems like a nice small place to start.
To help enhance the safety and security of the area around the dispensary, we will coordinate with the city and local law enforcement to identify walking paths, parking lots, and other areas that will benefit from increased surveillance and lighting.
With the company’s proud heritage in Jersey City, Hamm & Chaz will maintain a tenacious commitment to supporting our employees and positively impacting the community. Social responsibility and community engagement will not be a one-off or seasonal endeavor for us but rather a cornerstone of our organization that impacts our mission and operation.
Hamm & Chaz believes that community impact initiatives are most effective when present in all layers of an organization, not just within leadership and management. To encourage top to bottom participation in environmental, economic, and social initiatives, we will designate volunteer time during certain workdays so that our employees can spend time volunteering individually or as a team.
We will strive to form long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with Jersey City leadership and local organizations that serve citizens economically, socially, and environmentally through the following four initiatives:
● Community Engagement
● Local Partnerships
● Accessibility Plan
● Education Program
Hamm & Chaz will establish an “Impact Committee” consisting of dispensary leadership, management, and employees from the local community. The Impact Committee will identify and liaise with existing neighborhood organizations and nonprofits that focus on health, wellness, food poverty, criminal justice, and education initiatives that benefit Jersey City residents, particularly women and children.
The business intends to donate 4% of net profits to local organizations that provide services, resources, and education for veterans, women, children, and economically disadvantaged communities. We will continually assess the values, activities, and missions of the various groups we support and add new organizations or remove organizations that no longer align with our values.
Our initial community group partners will be:
1. A Fight Against the Odds Foundation
2. New Jersey Knights Elite Football Program
A Fight Against The Odds is committed to making a difference in the community and providing support to youth and their families. The organization is committed to providing events, educational tools, and support to the youth within the community. They aim to provide enlightening, fun, and interactive experiences and resources through a variety of activities and events throughout the year. Attached to this Plan is an executed Memorandum of Understanding with A Fight Against the Odds, as well as a letter of support for Hamm & Chaz’s application.
NJ Knights Elite is committed to providing the community with a youth football league for ages 7-13. The organization aims to provide support to families in need so that their children can participate without worrying about the cost. Attached to this Plan is an executed Memorandum of Understanding with the Knights Elite, as well as a letter of support for Hamm & Chaz’s application.
In addition to ongoing donations, Hamm & Chaz will partner with local organizations to help facilitate seasonal food drives and community clean-up days, promote fundraising, and participate in fundraising and other community events that benefit the residents of Jersey City. Other groups we will consider donating to or partnering with in some fashion are:
As part of the statewide effort to atone for the misguided “war on drugs,” Hamm & Chaz has partnered with Cannademix to sponsor and host expungement clinics to assist Jersey City residents who have been negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition. Hamm & Chaz sponsored its first expungement clinic through Cannademix on Thursday, November 10, 2022, in Jersey City at the Hudson County Community College. The legal team submitted seven expungement petitions to begin the path to a clean slate for each of those people, and the clinic saw and consulted with over a dozen Jersey City residents looking to clean up their records.
Additionally, Hamm & Chaz will be partnering with The Hoffman Center’s THCSponge Expungement Program. As a member of this program, the Company will be a partial sponsor of every expungement clinic the program puts on in the State and will also host a series of local expungement clinics in Jersey City. Residents with criminal records eligible to be expunged, particularly those with cannabis convictions, will be able to come and have their expungement petitions prepared and submitted that day under the guidance of skilled attorneys – free of charge.
To alleviate costs and improve accessibility for our customers, Hamm & Chaz will refund all public transportation costs that they incur to travel to the dispensary (up to $12). Eligible customers will need to provide a receipt, including the day and time they used the transportation service and the amount to be reimbursed. Methods of transportation to be included in our transportation program are rideshare services like Uber and Lyft, bus fares, parking fees, and train passes.
We will also implement a discount and rewards program to make cannabis more affordable for veterans, seniors, and customers enrolled in supplemental income programs. We will offer a 20% discount for veterans, a 15% discount for senior citizens over the age of 65, and a 15% discount for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) participants. Our rewards program will allow customers to earn points on every dollar spent toward future purchases for additional discounts to promote affordability.
Finally, Hamm & Chaz will, subject to and by applicable laws and regulations, initiate a discount program for disabled customers and local workers’ union members. To claim a discount, customers in these groups must bring IDs for proof of enrollment. There will be no minimum purchase amount for qualifying customers to claim these discounts.
Community education, particularly among younger residents of Jersey City, will be a pillar of our larger community engagement initiative. Our education program is a multi-faceted approach, which includes a scholarship fund for local high school students and a co-op program that will provide local college students with valuable business, retail, and management experience. We will again work in partnership with Cannademix to provide educational programming and resources to students at Henry Snyder High School. Provided that the program is approved by the Board of Education and the high school, we will then extend the program to Abraham Lincoln High School.
We plan to award one scholarship annually to an eligible applicant attending a public high school in Jersey City. The scholarship fund intends to help the applicant with tuition, room, and board costs associated with a Bachelor’s, Associate’s, or another equivalent degree. The student selected will be a senior seeking to enroll in a cannabis-focused curriculum or program at a college in New Jersey.
Our summer co-op program will select two college students from Jersey City to participate in a three-month training program that will teach them valuable business and management skills and educate them on working in the newly regulated New Jersey cannabis industry. Students will be selected in an application and interview process conducted by dispensary management and program staff and receive college credit for their efforts. We also plan to further develop this program into a larger hiring initiative that will prioritize local students in their last year of college.
In addition, we will assess the feasibility of hosting a job fair in partnership with local schools to make cannabis industry career information more accessible to students and young people. Hamm & Chaz will also provide cannabis educational seminars through Green Science LLC to keep students and faculty informed about the legal Cannabis industry and how it will affect them. Among other things, the program will provide the necessary insight to prevent students from unwanted situations, focusing on the dangers of consumption before the age of 21 and equipping them with the knowledge of cannabis to make informed decisions throughout their lives.
The material presented in the seminars will cover the following subjects:
· History of Cannabis
· Cannabinoids
· The Endocannabinoid System
· Health Benefits & Risks
· Consumption Education
· Laws & Regulations
· Career Opportunities
Green Science LLC’s approach to education will combine multiple approaches to engage students at all times, including the following:
· Lecture-based talk (45-90 min depending on request and or restrictions in time)
· Interactive presentation, including a slide show with diagrams, descriptions, and videos
· Handouts for students to have take-home material
· Independent time with faculty to discuss their needs and questions for when students approach them with questions (limited to 1 session outside of the event )
· Resource center for all Cannabis questions on the Cannademix platform (https://www.cannademix.com/ ).
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