Village Market, a nonprofit grocery store, provides jobs and produce to North Portland’s New Columbia, the state’s largest public housing development.
Village Market, a nonprofit grocery store, provides jobs and produce to North Portland’s New Columbia, the state’s largest public housing development.
The community along with this stretch of North Portland between Interstate-5 and the St. Johns Bridge, are listed on City of Portland and USDA maps as a “food desert,” or an urban neighborhood where residents have to travel extensively to get fresh produce.
The Village Market opened on May 28 last year on the same corner where two previous businesses, Big City Produce and AJ Java, tried to make a go and failed. A year on, the grocery is still operating on grants and adjusting its nonprofit vision to the reality of the neighborhood.
“It’s been an adventure,” Program Director Amber Baker said. “The goal is to be self sustaining in four years. We’re hoping for that.”
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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