Black-Led Food Coop Earns $25K In 6 Days For Central BK Store

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A Black-led food coop raised $25,000 in just six days to open its first grocery store in central Brooklyn.

Central Brooklyn Food Coop announced Tuesday its $25,000 Kickstarter met its goal in less than a week, which means organizers can secure a lease for a community-led grocery store to open the summer of 2020.

"We are thrilled with the response so far," said organizer Raina Kennedy. "It also shows us that this kind of community-led food justice initiative is not only inspiring, but needed."

More than 450 backers had pledged $28,735 to the cooperative as of Friday morning, with about 28 days remaining in the campaign. The money will go toward a down payment on a local storefront, organizers said.

"THANK YOU," CBFC organizers wrote in an email to their funders. "For believing in self-determination. For knowing the power of food."

The coop, which founders say is the city's only black-led food cooperative, urged supporters to share the Kickstarter on social media and to keep the funds coming.

"The more we raise, the more we can do," said Kennedy. "Any additional funding goes towards store buildout, equipment, community programming."

The group shared a projection of what they could do with $50,000, $75,000 and $100,000, which includes cooking demonstrations, a demo kitchen, and renovations to the shop they hope to open.

CBFC has been bring fresh fruits and vegetables to communities in Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights since it launched in 2013. Coop organizers say bring fresh produce into food desserts (Bed-Stuy, for example, has one grocery store for every 57 bodegas, they said) is about more than healthy living.

"...This campaign is tapping into something bigger than ourselves," CBFC organizers wrote. "We can, and should, go wayyyy beyond $25,000 to make food access a reality in Central Brooklyn."