NONPROFIT SUPERMARKET OPENS IN FOOD DESERT

Fare and Square, a nonprofit supermarket, opened this fall in the very building that had housed the last profit-driven supermarket in Chester, PA, a heavily low-income town 15 miles southwest of Philadelphia. It is the brainchild of Bill Clark, executive director of Philabundance, a Philadelphia hunger relief organization. Low-income shoppers can sign up for membership in the store’s Carrot Club to get store credit equal to 7% of what they spend, to be used for future purchases. Philabundance estimates that more than half of Chester’s 35,000 residents have already signed up. Customer can also head to a services counter to learn about their eligibility and apply for federal food assistance and Social Security programs. Started with the help of private foundations and corporate donors, it remains to be seen whether the Fare & Square can survive as a nonprofit business.

 

Source: New York Times, 11/23/13, Nonprofit Supermarket