Community-owned grocery store coming soon to Detroit's north end
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit's north end will soon be home to a community-owned grocery store.
Ground broke today on the Detroit Food Commons.
"It's what Detroit deserves, and it's what this neighborhood deserves," said Sonya Mays.
Mays runs Develop Detroit Now. Along with the Detroit Black Food Security Network, work has started to open the new store.
"Part of what we're trying to spark as a conversation in this neighborhood with this project is the importance of providing access to healthy, nutrient dense food - right where people live," said
The Detroit People's Food Co-Op will provide food from local farms as well as your regular groceries. D-Town Farms' Malik Yakini spoke with FOX 2 about that need a couple of years ago.
"People are interested in what we can do ourselves at a community level to begin to provide at least some of the food that we consume," Yakini said.
Construction on the store at Woodward and Euclid is expected to take about a year.
When the store opens, it will have incubator kitchens for local bakers and chefs, a banquet space, and an outdoor area for vendor fairs.
"It has all of the elements that Detroiters have been asking for with development in their neighborhood," Mays said.
Right now they have about 1,400 member owners, but they'd like to have thousands more invest in this community project.
"We really want to show the broader community the value of these sorts of community owned assets and facilities in Detroit, so we would love to have everyone who shops here be a member, but it's not necessarily required," Mays said.