Detroit People’s Food Co-op, in Michigan USA, has been rallying community members for support after hitting financial problems.
The Black-led, community-owned grocery co-op, launched in 2024 to “provide improved access to healthy food and food education”, has been facing a financial crunch after a summer of refrigeration failures and stock loss, power outages and extreme weather events.
Warning it faces a weekly shortfall of US$20,000 to $30,000, it has put out a call to action – urging people to shop at the store, increase their spend, to become paying members or to invest in the co-op.
The board has launched the Mframadan Campaign – named after an Adinkra symbol used by the Akan peoples of Ghana, which means “a house built to withstand windy and treacherous conditions”.
On Saturday, 10 October, the store was packed out for the day in response to a call for a ‘Black girl cash mob”, which sought to leverage Black spending power by calling 100 Black women shoppers to the co-op.
“We knew the power of our community,” general manager Aaron Orr told the Detroit Free Press, “so we don’t hide anything from our community because they’re the ones who built us, literally.
“It wasn’t so much an SOS as it was just a call to action.”
The co-op is also urging locals to become a member/owner – and encourage three friends to do the same, with a target of 500 new member/owners.
Supporters are also asked to schedule an opportunity for a co-op representative to talk with their church, block club, fraternity, sorority, social club, or community organisation about the Co-op’s community-ownership model by emailing [email protected]
Those who are able to invest $1,000 or more can email [email protected] to ask about the co-op’s Non-Voting Investment Certificate Program.
And the online fundraiser is at gofund.me/e32302e6d
