LEWISTON COMMUNITY FOOD CENTER
what is the Lewiston community food center?
A vision for a Community Food Center was developed through the Local Foods Local Places Community Planning process in 2019 (see LFLP Action Plan). The Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) and St. Mary’s Nutrition Center have identified a model for a vibrant multi-use community space that includes a low-cost grocery store, a shared commercial kitchen, shared food storage, and a café. Please see Lewiston CFC Snapshot for an overview.
what does it mean for the community?
The Community Food Center (CFC) will increase access to healthy foods in the Tree Streets neighborhood, provide storage and processing opportunities for local small scale food producers and farmers, provide opportunities for skills development, and unlock job and ownership opportunities for community members.
why now?
In May 2021, the City of Lewiston was awarded a $30 million HUD Choice Neighborhood grant that will support its efforts to increase the quality of life for its Downtown communities (see Growing our Tree Streets). The Choice Implementation plan designates space for the CFC in the ground floor of a new 60+ multi-unit housing structure that will be built on Pine Street next to Kennedy Park. The CFC is a part of the overall plan to enhance the health and wellness of the community and $1.8 million has been allocated toward the construction of the space that will house the CFC operation. What an amazing opportunity!
Get involved!
It is time to set things in motion! The development of the CFC will be done by and for the community. Community members are instrumental in turning the current vision into an amazing resource for Lewiston-Auburn! CDI and St. Mary’s Nutrition Center will support the process from start to finish.
Interested in joining a group of community members in October for another opportunity to learn more? The group will learn more about the research behind the CFC model and how it can be owned and operated by the community. The group will also participate in making decisions, setting a clear direction for the CFC, and potentially become founding members.
You’re interested! What now?
Email the CFC Support Team at LewistonCFC@gmail.com or call the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center at 207-513-3848 and leave a message indicating your interest in joining the Community Food Center development and we will get back to you asap. You can also request more information if you’re not quite sure, but interested to learn more.
The team looks forward to working with you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!
The coordinating team: Emmy Andersson, Katherine Bessey, and Omar Hassan from CDI; Sherie Blumenthal and Kirsten Walter from the Nutrition Center
Research highlights
- 11K sqft location is secured on the ground floor of the housing complex to be developed on Pine St. next to Kennedy Park in Lewiston
- Central to large residential demographic segment as well as in proximity with three of the areas largest employers
- Deeply integrated into the community as part of a housing complex
- A natural gathering place near public park
- Clustered with public services through proximity to City Hall, Public Library, Nutrition Center and emergency food, Court House, Retail and Restaurants, Childcare, DHHS, Banks, etc.
- Demand
- Over 75% of area consumers indicate willingness to shop at the CFC grocery retail store.
- Over $14M of food dollars are currently “leaking” from the area due to Low Supermarket Access. Only about $900,000 is spent on groceries in this area, but the residents (if combined) of this area spend just under $15,000,000 on groceries in a year. This demonstrates a great demand for the retail services that the CFC can provide.
- Many local farmers and food producers will benefit from having access to processing kitchen beyond what they currently have.
- Non-Profit emergency food institutions and food producers need storage and would make use of shared food storage if available.
- Investment In the Lewiston Community
- The City of Lewiston is dedicated to the revitalization of the Tree Streets Neighborhood through the CHOICE Healthy Neighborhoods Transformation Plan
- HUD awarded the City of Lewiston $30M to match investments to replace outdated and dangerous housing stock in the community.
- Current CFC Investments
- $1.8M is allocated by HUD for the construction of the commercial space that will house the CFC.
- $30K of Walmart Foundation funding is allocated to support the research into the feasibility and model structure of the CFC.
- Letters of support, indicating willingness to partner, from one lender and one Maine based foundation have been secured
Community food center gathering on september 13
LA community members kicked off the Community Food Center cooperative business development process with a wonderful in-person, outdoor gathering in the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center garden on September 13th. A large group of people gathered to learn more about the research and the upcoming development process of the Community Food Center enterprise. The event offered Isuken Co-op Sambosas along side a spread of newly harvested veggies and grapes from the Nutrition Center gardens. Gathered in the shade of a large maple tree, community members were reminded of the long history of collective community building, informed by the understanding of community needs, that have led to this point and to this particular solution. They were able to take part of key research highlights, were brought on a visualization journey to their future Community Food Center, and were informed of the cooperative development process that lay ahead. Many community members voiced their excitement around the possibilities for the Food Center and enthusiastically engaged with the coordination team, diving into questions and future scenarios. Many signed up to lean more and some voiced interest in becoming steering and advisory committee members.
The event offered stipends to participants as a way to allow more voices to be heard while ensuring that they were adequately compensation for their time spent bringing the vision into reality. Translation was also offered to those who requested it to ensure that all community members had direct access to the material presented and a chance to be heard in the process moving forward.
The coordination team was happy with the outcome, stating that the goal of this gathering was to show community members that something like this is possible in their community, to get people excited and engaged, and to spark an interest in joining either a Community Food Center steering committee or a project advisory committee.
Emmy Andersson, CMBA Coordinator