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Neils Cotter Boosts South LA Students - From Dorsey Green Sauce to Avocado Drive
In 2021, investment expert Neils Cotter helped his business elective class at Dorsey
High School create and sell an avocado-based sauce. The Dorsey Green Sauce program, which raises funds for South LA
students from challenged backgrounds, has gone from strength to strength, with
thousands of bottles sold online and in person.
Cotter will soon help his class raise more
money with the Dorsey Avocado Drive. Students will sell avocados grown on
Cotter’s farm and keep all the proceeds.
Dorsey Green Sauce: From
South LA to Shelves Nationwide
Located in the Crenshaw District of South LA,
Dorsey High School has a high number of students who face financial insecurity.
Many have challenging home lives or live in group homes or foster care.
Cotter began volunteering at the school
several years ago, teaching a weekly business elective class. He decided the
best way to prepare students for future careers was to help them start a real
business.
Dorsey Green Sauce shares a name and likeness
with the South LA school’s colors. The early sauce recipes used avocados from
Cotter’s 50-acre farm in Ojai. Now, students have developed a new recipe that
has Indian-inspired flavors and a longer shelf life.
Thanks to help from Village Green Foods, which
creates sauces for Chick-fil-A, the new sauce is shippable throughout the U.S.
Bottles sell for $12 each on the Dorsey Green Sauce website.
Other companies have come aboard to support
the program. Advertising firm Deutsch LA volunteered to develop a brand
identity and build a website for Dorsey Green Sauce. Online marketplace company
Zazzle has set up a screen printing program that allows students to create
branded merchandise, such as hats and t-shirts, for free.
Cotter says his students can invest and expand
Dorsey Green Sauce at their discretion. On top of this, the program is actively
looking to work with restaurants in the South LA area.
The Dorsey Avocado
Drive
The proceeds that the Dorsey Green Sauce
program generates contribute directly to the lives and education of the
school’s young people. In addition, students learn entrepreneurial skills that
can help them launch their own businesses at college and beyond.
Eager to raise more money for his students,
Cotter plans to launch the Dorsey Avocado Drive in summer 2024. Students will
each receive an allocation of free avocados from Cotter’s farm. They will keep
any profits they make selling the fruit to businesses, friends, and family.
Ahead of the Drive, Cotter has run
competitions that encourage his class to think up ideas about how they could
sell the avocados for more profitable means. Students can price the avocados
however they like or sell them alongside other items. They can also use the
avocados to make and sell products like face creams.
Media Mentions and Celebrity
Shoutouts
The word about the Dorsey Green Sauce project
continues to spread, with more and more people learning about Dorsey’s
enterprising students.
Within a week of the “LA Eater” including the
sauce in a 2022 holiday gift guide, students had to cap orders at 1,000 bottles.
Fast-forward to January 2024, and Kourtney
Kardashian shouted out Dorsey on Instagram. Her father, Robert Kardashian,
attended Dorsey High School while growing up in Los Angeles.
Cotter describes Dorsey High School as a “gem in South LA” and its students as “amazing, resilient,
beautiful spirits.” His entrepreneurial support is helping many of South LA’s
young people break the cycle of poverty in their families.
About Neils Cotter
Neils Cotter[1] volunteers at Dorsey High School, using his
business experience and insights to educate and empower South LA students. He
also uses his real estate development expertise to guide the expansion of Camp
Ronald McDonald for Good Times, the largest camp in the U.S. for children who
have or have had cancer. Cotter is a former member of the camp’s Board of
Trustees. He is also the co-founder of Basecamp Hotels, a hotel chain inspired by exploration.