When the Cub Foods on Verona Road closed in 2009, residents in the low-income Allied/Dunn Marsh neighborhood were left without a full-service grocery store within walking distance, turning the area into a subsequent food desert. And once the Walgreens on Verona road closed in 2014, the neighborhood was left virtually without any options.

Eight years later and the community has seen many short term solutions come and go. Fresh Madison Market provided a food truck for a time, but residents said the food was too expensive and the hours not convenient. Union Cab vouchers have also been available to transport residents to and from local grocery stores, but the vouchers can only be obtained during certain times of the day and the lack of autonomy can be frustrating for some residents.

“Sometime people want to go to the store when they’re ready to go to the store and waiting on a cab to get them, it can be frustrating,” said Alice Howard, an Allied resident for over 17 years and the co-president of the neighborhood association. Howard is also a member of the Allied Community Cooperative. “People aren’t being picky or unappreciative, because they are appreciative, but they’re wondering why do I have to go through all of this when I need a grocery store in my community now.”

For the last two years, ACC has been working with city of Madison to bring back a viable food option for the neighborhood, but the progress has been slow.

In 2015, the City of Madison granted Allied Community Co-op, in partnership with Willy Street Co-op and the University of Wisconsin Center for Co-Operatives, a $300,000 forgivable loan to open a grocery store in the Allied neighborhood.

Originally the grant was to be geared toward attracting an established grocery chain to provide a full service store to the area.  But ACC was the only group that applied, so the City awarded them the grant to build a 2,000 sq foot space self-defined as a “healthy corner store” that would function on a co-operative model, according to ACC’s original proposal.

A staff report from August 2015 on the co-op proposal stated: “There is no question that accepting and funding this proposal could be perceived as riskier than initially anticipated. However, previous other national retailers and other food access projects in the area have failed to meet the needs of the neighborhood. The greatest asset of this project is that it is a community-based project originating from within the neighborhood; not from an outside entity trying to adapt to meet neighborhood needs.”

George Reistad
George Reistad

They really have a community-led organization trying to set up a private business venture, in response to a need that the market was not addressing,” said George Reistad, director of Madison Food Policy Council, the committee that provided and oversees the grant.

But two years later, little progress has been made. So far less than ten percent of the grant has been spent, mostly “to support the feasibility work and the pre-development work for the grocery store,” including market analysis and training for ACC members, said Anne Reynolds, UW Center for Cooperatives executive director.

In the meantime residents are still without a viable food option within walking distance, relying primarily on the Mobil gas station on Verona road which carries basic grocery items like milk and eggs, along with condiments, pre-packaged noodles and frozen microwaveable food. Residents also eat hot food from ice cream trucks and items from the Allied Boys and Girls Club food pantry.

Reistad said it’s up to to ACC to keep the process moving.

“Really it’s up to them to move this forward,” he said. “We offer any support that we can.”

But limited involvement from city officials and larger community entities may be more harmful than helpful as it is still unclear on when the neighborhood need for an accessible fresh food option will be met or whether the store will be open by its originally projected November 2018 time frame.

“We don’t want people to wait two more years for a grocery store,” Howard said. “We’re trying to get something as soon as possible.”

So far market analysis have been done on several locations in the area with the most recent one being completed in February showing the highest favorability for a vacant lot located on Allied Drive, next to the Revival Ridge apartments.

AlliedDrMapUnlike the other options located on Verona road, the current preferred site would require a complete construction and would serve as a multipurpose space for other community entities such as office space or a clinic.

“It would demonstrate more ownership if it was on Allied Drive,” said Reynolds.

The additional construction will change the original timeline for the store and likely delay its opening, but it’s multipurpose use can allow for organizations to help fund the construction.

Though less than 10 percent of the original $300,000 has been used, Reynolds still projects an additional $300,000 will be needed.

“If the feasibility study is positive and it looks like this grocery store could survive and thrive then there are funds to hire a project manager for doing remodeling of a site and building membership, because this a cooperative, and then that would need to be leveraged with additional funds from members and probably a bank in order to do a full store,” said Reynolds.

There are also plans to hire a financial consultant to build a more detailed budget including a feasible cost for membership in the co-operative.

The originally submitted budget listed memberships costs as $25 per member or household with a minimum of 250 members. It’s also included funding for nine full time employee positions at $15 an hour.