DETROIT (WXYZ) — What used to be a funeral home is now being used to house a food co-op, a clothing store and much more for the community in Detroit.
“Brightmoor (residents) now have a place where they can come and use computers if they need to, still get fresh food if they need to, still get free clothing if they need to right in their backyard,” Delores Green-Wyatt, a Brightmoor resident, said.
Green-Wyatt has lived in the Brightmoor neighborhood for more than 30 years.
She will be a member of the Abbott Resource Center Food Co-op, which sits at 20740 Grand River Avenue.
“When we can come and get fresh food and then look on another shelf and be like oh there’s that item I was seeing that I really wanted to get, but it was costing a little bit more when I was going to the grocery store,” Green-Wyatt said. “I want to put it on my grocery store list, but I can’t. But now I can because it’s a little cheaper."
A food co-op is a grocery store owned and led by community members.
Watch our previous report from when the Detroit People’s Food Co-op opened in the city's North End neighborhood:
“Our board is made up of community members and volunteers, and so they get to govern how a nonprofit is run. When you get a say so in that, it’s no longer charity — it’s social change,” Rev. Rosyln Bouier said.
Bouier is the executive director of the food co-op.
She has ran a food pantry in the Brightmoor neighborhood for years but now with the food co-op, she can help even more people get access to food and fresh produce.
“This community sits within a high population of high comorbidities, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes… so we know we need to get healthy food in community,” Bouier said.
Money to open the co-op in Brightmoor came from a $500,000 grant from the Priority Health Total Health Foundation.
“It’s important for us to be empowering the community because that’s how change is going to happen,” said Eamon Harnois, program director of Priority Health Total Health Foundation.
The doors to the Abbott Resource Center Food Co-op will be open to the public on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
