The group working to establish a Community Grocery Cooperative (CGC) in Ward 8 is asking District residents to participate in a survey about the grocery needs of potential customers. Any District resident who might be interested in shopping at a consumer-owned grocery store located in Ward 8 is encouraged to respond.
The goals of the survey are to collect interest and retrieve enough information for the cooperative’s business plan and market study. The survey will help gauge interest for a full-service consumer-owned food cooperative grocery store in the District of Columbia Ward 7 or Ward 8. Both District of Columbia Wards are known food deserts. Typically, this effort is a multi-year process to establish the food cooperative.
There is no set deadline for responding to the survey. The cooperative board will communicate the deadline through media and to those who have received the survey at least a week before responses are closed.
The DC Policy Center determined that 46 percent of the District’s food deserts are located in Ward 8, with 31 percent in Ward 7. While other wards have ready access to a variety of full-service commercial grocers, Wards 7 and 8 have seen a decrease from seven stores in 2010 to three today.
Tired of waiting for others to address concerns with access to healthy food, residents began the effort to develop a CGC store in March 2016. Those involved in the organization hope that this community-based solution will succeed where political and corporate efforts have fallen short.
Board members note that they are still in the planning phase, but input from interested community members is critical to their success. The survey is available online now.
Learn more about the Community Grocery Cooperative by visiting their Facebook page, or by emailing them at communitygrocerycoop@gmail.com
