Nonprofit supermarket set to open in Chester this weekend

Fare & Square, a nonprofit grocery store created by Philabundance, also a nonprofit organization, plans to open this Saturday in Chester, PA, a community declared as a food desert by the federal government. The government defines a food desert as a low-income area lacking ready access to healthy food.

The $7 million store is the brain child of Philabundance Executive Director Bill Clark, who said it's nearly impossible to buy a head of lettuce in any of Chester's 100 corner stores. Chester's population is approximately 33,000.

Financial help for the nonprofit store has been provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Delaware Valley Regional Economic Development Fund, the City of Chester, and others.

Although anyone can shop in the 16,000 square foot store, shoppers with annual incomes equal to or less than twice the federal poverty level of $23,000 for a family of four can accrue store credits of seven percent of their purchase. The credits can be applied towards future purchases.

Chester, once a bustling shipbuilding town, has struggled in the years after World War II.  As of Saturday, the city will have the designation of being home to the only nonprofit supermarket in the country.

According to a Philly.com story, Bottom Dollar is planning to open a store in Chester in 2014.

The Fresh Grocer to add 5 stores in underserved communities

The Fresh Grocer, which currently operates seven stores in Philadelphia, Drexel Hill, PA and Wilmington, DE, announced that it has teamed up with the Partnership for a Healthier America and will open five full-service supermarkets in the next five years in underserved communities.

The first of the five stores will open in New Brunswick, NJ next year and is the result of a partnership between The Fresh Grocer, the city of New Brunswick, the New Brunswick Development Corp., the New Brunswick Parking Authority and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

A second location is slated to open in 2013 or 2014 in Washington, D.C.

The company is not new to the idea of opening stores in underserved areas. In 2009 The Fresh Grocer opened two stores in Philadelphia, which, according to the company, created more than 400 local jobs and put an end to two of the city's biggest food deserts.