Local Co-op Seeks More Diversity With Champaign Store

Champaign-Urbana’s local food co-op is expanding to a second location, with hopes it will appeal to a new group of clientele.  Common Ground Food Co-op, which is currently in Urbana, chose downtown Champaign after a year of researching where it might have the greatest impact. 

It’s a move that’s not without its critics, but management believes it could boost an already diverse customer base. 

The Common Ground store in Urbana's Lincoln Square location has tripled in size, adding a lot of staff the last few years.  

The co-op is owned by its members.  General Manager Jacqueline Hannah says owners and community members have wanted to add a Champaign location since 2008. That’s when the co-op moved from the basement of the Illinois Disciples Foundation on the U of I campus, to its current spot.

(pictured- the storefront of Common Ground Food Co-op in Urbana, with the location of the downtown Champaign location opening in 2016.)

She said downtown Champaign seemed like an obvious choice for second store.

“We feel like we get to serve as an actual community center, when people can walk to where they get their food, and they feel like we’re connected to the city hub," she said.

Hannah said Common Ground’s Board of Directors looked in a lot of other neighborhoods, primarily in far west and southwest Champaign, but they would not have worked as well as the downtown spot.

So come 2016, Common Ground will open a new location on Walnut Street in downtown Champaign. Hannah said they plan to lease a space comparable to its current one, but with more room for cooking classes and deli offerings.

City officials in Champaign see the new store as an opportunity to better serve the people who live in the area.

Rob Kowalski with Champaign’s planning department says discussions with the co-op went on for a year. He says the new Common Ground brings a more diverse mix of shops and services to downtown: 

“We’ve done a real nice job with restaurants and bars in downtown, among other things, but some of the more retail uses that would benefit people in the immediate area are also desired, such as a grocery store, which doesn’t exist in that area," he said.

In fact, downtown Champaign is near what's known as 'food desert'. Kowalski said mainstream grocers weren’t interested in locating there.  He said the closest chain, County Market, is happy with its location at the old Burnham Hospital site in the U of I’s Campustown neighborhood.  

Craig Gunderson is the soybean industry endowed Professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois.  He researches causes of food insecurity, and questions how well Common Ground’s additional location will serve downtown Champaign.

They’re generally geared towards a higher-end clientele," he said.  "And you can tell just from looking at their website.  The price of the products that they sell are quite high, so it’s unlikely that low-income persons would shop there.”

Common Ground’s Jaqueline Hannah said she understands those concerns.  She said many people confuse co-ops with chains that specialize in organic offerings, like Whole Foods.

She said surveys have shown those who shop at the co-op are diverse economically, will use food stamps, and take part in a ‘Food for All’ program that many co-ops use.  Those programs offer 10-percent discounts for shoppers who can demonstrate a financial need. 

Hannah also points out the co-op isn’t a for-profit business.  In fact, she said attracting a diverse mix of clients is one of the goals of adding the new store.

“We had market studies in Champaign and in Urbana that said ‘if you go into this neighborhood, you will make more money’ and we didn’t choose them, because they only represented one side of, or one part of, who we serve,' she said.  "That is not why we exist, is just to make the most money possible.  We exist to bring access to local organic food, and good jobs to communities.  We do that by being in community centers.”

Hannah says the downtown co-op spot will also provide more than 75 jobs at 10-dollars an hour minimum, in an area that’s previously been industrial.  And she says Common Ground will hold community input sessions this year to get a sense of what the neighborhood wants at that location.

When the Walnut Street location was announced, the public had its share of questions, judging from the reader comments in the online publication Smile Politely. 

They included concerns about enough parking spaces, the future of businesses currently in the building, to fears the new facility could lead to gentrification downtown.  Hannah said that’s one of the purposes behind the input sessions, and continuing a transparent dialogue with its new neighbors in Champaign.

"There is a conversation to be had about how we improve neighborhoods, how we bring jobs – and that we do it in a way that’s respectful to everyone," he said.  "That it doesn’t just come in and sweep out one community to bring in another.”

Common Ground will have to boost its membership in order to set up the Champaign store.  It’s launched an owner drive, with a goal of 900 more of them by September.  But they’ll be doing it under a new general manager.  

Hannah leaves her job next month to become a development specialist with the Food Co-op Initiative, helping more than 100 communities that are trying to start their own food co-ops.  She’ll stay in Champaign-Urbana, working to boost collaborative efforts between existing co-ops and start-ups.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In the interest of full disclosure, Common Ground is an underwriter of WILL programming.