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After Decades in a Food Desert, These Neighbors Are Building a $2 Million Co-opAnd They Own It
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Yes! Magazine


Yes! Magazine, November 12, 2015
Posted: November 30th, 2015
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/after-decades-in-a-fo...

Guilford County, North Carolina, has 24 food deserts - high-poverty neighborhoods where at least one-third of the residents live a mile or more from a grocery store. People living in these neighborhoods are more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and more. Northeast Greensboro [has] been without a local grocery store for nearly 20 years. "People organized for years to attract a corporate grocery store to the community and were rebuffed every time, says James Lamar Gibson. When the spark was lit that we can do this for ourselves, thats what resonated with ... the community. Gibson [works] as a volunteer for the Renaissance Community Co-op. The idea of being an owner of the co-op has gotten a lot of residents really excited. In total RCC needs to raise $2.1 million, and theyre about 95 percent of the way there. With the initial fundraising almost complete, RCC is ready to take on the next steps of the project: getting the food and hiring employees. The goal is to work with as many local companies and producers as possible - from the food they buy to the delivery companies to the refrigeration systems. Organizers have made sure to let the community know that this wont look like a typical co-op in a higher-income neighborhood. The neighborhood is predominantly made up of low-income black families, so the food and the prices will reflect that. The hiring ... will reflect that as well.

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