Northside residents are spearheading plans to open a
community grocer cooperative in 2007. Project facilitators and fellow Northsiders Brad Spencer and Kimberly Walkenhorst are currently recruiting volunteers and forming project steering committees. The pair began by talking with residents. “A lot of people from this area drive to the
East End Food Co-op,” says Walkenhorst, 22. “The consensus is that there aren’t a lot of places to go grocery shopping.”
In December, a
Coro Fellow helped the co-op complete a feasibility study and identify potential locations. Looking to secure a 6,000-10,000 square-foot site along Brighton Road, the project hopes to contribute to community gardening and beautification. The blighted corridor was targeted during a recent
CMU Urban Lab study, which integrated the co-op’s urban agriculture model into its revitalization proposal. “There’s a need there--it’s a district that isn’t served and hasn’t been built up” says Spencer, 33. The software engineer contractor believes the co-op will create jobs and improve quality of life. “We want the co-op to be a unifying force for the entire Northside not just the neighborhoods near it.”
The member owned co-op a will carry
organic, locally produced and ecologically sound products, as well as
affordable staples. It intends to promote socially responsible
shopping, nutrition awareness and environmentalism. “We have a solid core of co-op people who will sustain us, plus people
who don’t go to co-ops,” says Walkenhorst, who co-owns Beleza coffeehouse, a popular Northside gathering spot. “We’re trying to make this
as community oriented as possible--to
provide sustainability and build community.”
Writer: Jennifer Baron
Sources: Brad Spencer; Kimberly Walkenhorst
Image courtesy of The Northside Community Grocer Cooperative