Welcome to the Remix. This time, our economics neighborhood spin takes us to the story of the Detroit People’s Food Co-op. The co-op opened its doors this past May, but it was a long journey to get there, which is the focus of this column.
The idea of a co-op, according to Malik Yakini, co-founder and recently retired executive director of Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (which since 2008 has operated the 7-acre D-Town Farm), really goes back to the formation of the food justice nonprofit in 2006. The effort began slowly, with a food buying club. A feasibility study was conducted in 2012, and the co-op itself was incorporated in 2014.
The vision is expansive. The facility that opened this year does not just house a 15,000-square-foot food co-op. It’s a two-story facility with offices for DBCFSN, a banquet hall for community events, and four commercial kitchens for local businesses.
Moving from concept to operating co-op was not easy. It took eight years to raise the $22 million—which included a mix of foundation grants, individual donors, loans, and New Markets Tax Credit finance—and another two years to construct the building.
Key challenges included finding a development partner and land assembly. Maintaining community support was also critical. As Yakini explains, “After we had been working on this thing for four to five years, there were people saying this is never going to happen, it’s a scam, they are stealing people’s money. There were all kinds of rumors.”
That said, now that the co-op is opened, it is off to a good start. The project structure, explains Yakini, helps set up the store for success. The development authority and DBFCSN own the building and financed refrigeration and other store improvements. As a result, the co-op opened “almost debt free” and lease rates are low.
Lanay Gilbert-Williams, the co-op’s board president, is enthusiastic. She says that the opening of the food co-op “has given a lot of Detroiters hope…that we will still have a place in the city.” Sales, according to general manager Akil Talley, are above projections and membership numbers are rapidly rising.
That said, opening brings its own challenges—such as welcoming new volunteers, setting up operations and governance policies, and maintaining Black leadership in the multiracial co-op, even as Detroit, as Gilbert-Williams points out, faces gentrification.
So, as you read this column, I encourage you to consider what lessons you take from this story—and maybe how to bring a similar co-op to your community.
Until the next Remix column, I remain
Your Remix Man:
Steve Dubb
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