Bushwick Food Coop Needs $60K To Reopen After Fire

BUSHWICK, NY — A Bushwick grocery store is still struggling to opens its doors back up months after it was ravaged by a fire, prompting its ownership to consider relocating.

Bushwick Food Coop, located at 1087 Flushing Ave., was damaged in a trash fire early in the morning of July 3.

"The fire entered the store and damaged the ceiling by the window, but the building sprinklers came on and the fire department was able to break open the gate and doors to the store to get in and put anything else out,” vice president of the co-op’s board of directors Sarah Overholt told the Brooklyn Eagle in July.

Three months following the fire, the coop—which has been up and running in its current location since 2012— is still looking to raise the funds necessary to reopen. But it is well short of its fundraising aspiration, according to the Bushwick Food Coop-organized GoFundMe campaign.

Indeed, as of this writing, the coop has raised $11,315 from 124 donors — nearly $50,000 short of its $60,000 goal.

"We want to rebuild and get back to our mission! In order to do that we need to cover what we lost in the fire and our business operational costs while we are forced to be closed," reads the GoFundMe's description. "We currently are not able to project a re-opening date but with the help of our members, friends, families, partners, neighbors and helpful, hopeful strangers we hope it will be very soon!"

And as Bedford + Bowery reports, the grocery store's leadership is mulling opening up in a new spot.

"There’s nothing firm yet but there is a coalescing idea that [moving] can be a next step, both in terms of recovery and growth for the organization," Overholt told the publication. In addition, she said that plan A is still to reopen in its current location.

But Jessica Balnave—head of the relocation committee and former manager of the coop— is more keen on relocating.

"The location that we’re in does not fully benefit what we could potentially be,” Balnaves said, according to Bedford + Bowery. “If we have to rebuild—which is what we have to do—let’s rebuild in a space that is better for us.”

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