Cleveland’s Central and Kinsman neighborhoods have been awarded a $300,000 grant from the BUILD Health Challenge to create a community-owned food co-op, healthy foods cafe, farmers market network and other solutions that would improve food access in the area, according to a news release issued today. The Central community has been without a full-service grocery store since Dave’s Market pulled out of Arbor Park Plaza in 2019.
Cleveland was one of 13 communities across the U.S. to get awards from the BUILD Health Challenge, which has so far funded 55 initiatives across 25 states and Washington DC. Now in its fourth year, BUILD is funded by philanthropies, including the Kresge Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Locally, the Sisters of Charity Foundation is providing a $300,000 match to help support the work.
Cleveland public health director Dave Margolius told The Land he expects the funding to be the catalyst for getting a new food co-op and other projects going in Central and Kinsman, and that in three years the city will see the fruits of this labor start to take shape.
“This is about food justice,” Margolius told The Land. “We know these wide disparities in food access are from structural racism, and that this leads to generational wealth gaps and health disparities. What this grant does is help create tools to help create a local food supply, so that these communities aren’t reliant on international food supply chains. It puts power into people’s hands who live here and that leads to better health.”
The partners in the BUILD project, which is called “Race, Food and Justice: Resident-Led Change to Support a Sustainable, Local Food System,” include Environmental Health Watch, Sisters of Charity Foundation, Food Access Raises Everyone (FARE), Loiter, and Free Thinkers. The project will receive $300,000 over three years to address food access in Central and Kinsman on Cleveland’s east side. According to the press release, the solutions that will be implemented could include a community-owned food co-operative, a community farmers network, a healthy food café, a food jobs pipeline, and advocacy and policy work to address food access and insecurity.
“The city of Cleveland is honored to be selected as one of the 13 communities to receive recognition, funding and support from BUILD,” said Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb in a release. “BUILD is a program that will help us create a more equitable city by providing resources where residents need them most.”
“We are so grateful to BUILD for its support and for the longstanding commitment of its partners and resident leaders,” added Environmental Health Watch director Kim Foreman. “Together, we are committed to ending food apartheid through changing systems and amplifying community voice in the Kinsman and Central neighborhoods.”
Check out The Land’s past coverage of Cleveland’s food access issues, including this piece written by community journalist La Queta Worley and managing editor Sharon Holbrook about the need for a grocery store in Central: Food pantries and corner stores aren’t enough: We deserve a grocery store in Central – The Land (thelandcle.org). For more information about the BUILD project in Cleveland, contact Rebecca Gallant at Sisters of Charity Foundation at 216/288-0239 or rgallant@sistersofcharityfoundation.org.
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