The Community Grocer
The Community Grocer aims to increase access for people living in public housing to fresh, affordable and healthy food by holding weekly fruit and vegetable markets!
For the last 9 months The Community Grocer has been running a market every Friday from 9.30am - 12.30pm at 510 Lygon Street in Carlton. In this time, we have had more than 3,500 customers who bought over 2550kg of tomatoes, over 2,250kg of potatoes, more
than 500 watermelons and one bunch of kale. Every week, The Community Grocer also serves a free vegetarian meal.
Food Insecurity in the City of Melbourne
Approximately 7% of people living in the City of Melbourne are food insecure. This primarily effects people on low incomes, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and single parent households - many of whom are living in public housing.
Food insecurity and a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables can contribute to health issues including obesity, diabetes and heart disease as well as impacting a child's development and academic performance.
Carlton is an affordable fresh food desert - while it has both chain supermarkets and independent fruit and vegetable retailers, these are inaccessible and unaffordable for local residents living in public housing. The Community Grocer is trying to address
the issue of food insecurity in the City of Melbourne by bringing fresh produce directly to residents living at 510 Lygon Street Carlton. The weekly market is set up directly below the buildings to enable easy access while the price of produce is kept as low
as possible by reducing overheads and engaging the help of a wonderful team of volunteers.
Social Impact
In its first 9 months, The Community Grocer has already had a substantial impact on many people's lives. We have created a vibrant weekly community event that provides people with the opportunity to engage more with their food and with one another.
We have had local residents cook up their own BBQ lunch to share using vegetables purchased at the market. We have seen one of our volunteers secure employment with CERES Fair Food because of the work he did with The Community Grocer. We have seen smiles,
home grown produce and cooking tips shared amongst our customers, volunteers and staff.
Call to Action
The Community Grocer would like to expand and set up a market at another site in the City of Melbourne. Not only would this help to increase the impact of The Community Grocer in addressing food insecurity, but it would help to make the market more financially
sustainable.
Currently, The Community Grocer must sell all its produce by the end of the market due to a lack of storage space and fridge facilities. This means that produce must be discounted towards the end of the day reducing the potential margins and making it difficult
to cover the costs of goods and the market wages.
By setting up a market at an additional site, we would be able to sell any excess stock at a price that would enable us to make a small profit and cover costs of operating The Community Grocer.
Furthermore, by introducing cold storage infrastructure to The Community Grocer, we would substantially decrease the risk of losing any stock to wastage. Having access to cold storage would enable us to begin to explore our vision of having a fresh fruit
and vegetable market in every public housing estate across Melbourne.
Donating
Thank you for any donation you can make.
Please share our campaign across Facebook using the share button and Instagram using #growthecommunitygrocer.
As well as donating to our campaign, we would love for you to come down to The Community Grocer at 510 Lygon Street on a Friday from 9.30am and buy your fruit and vegetables!
Visit our website at
www.thecommunitygrocer.com.au for more information and to meet the team!
Or check us out on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCommunityGrocer
