Newark Opens 5 Homegrown 'City Grocery Stores' For Local Residents

NEWARK, NJ — The era of “Mutal Aid Grocery Stores” has begun in New Jersey’s largest city.

On Thursday, community leaders in Newark held a ribbon cutting ceremony at 312 New Street to mark the official opening of five low-cost community supermarkets – one for each ward of the city.

According to the mayor’s office, the new grocery stores will allow local residents to purchase food and home supplies at a price that is 30 percent below wholesale cost.

The stores will also serve as a neighborhood hub for support and resources for “working poor” – households that earn too much to rely on emergency aid but who still can’t cover the price of groceries.

The locations of the stores include:

• North Ward – 39 Broadway Avenue
• South Ward – 393 Hawthorne Avenue
• West Ward – 503 Central Avenue
• East Ward – 296 Ferry Street
• Central Ward – 312 New Street

The stores will give shoppers a dignified experience similar to what they’d encounter at a local Shop-Rite or other chain store. Since the partners are stocking their shelves with joint purchases, shoppers will find the same food – and the same prices – across the city.

All five stores will soon accept SNAP and WIC benefits, officials said.

The program will be overseen by Newark’s Office of Sustainability, Resilience and Community Transformation.

Similar efforts to create publicly owned grocery stores in New York City under the Mamdani administration have run into legal challenges from critics who argue that taxpayer-funded discounts could drive nearby private stores out of business.

However, there’s a big twist that separates Newark’s efforts from other community supermarkets across the nation, officials say: the city won’t be the one running them.

Instead, five different community groups will be operating the supermarkets: La Casa de Don Pedro, Clinton Hill Community Action, United Community Corporation, Montana Global / Ironbound Community Corporation, St. James Social Service Corporation.

Supporters have pointed out that large swaths of Newark have been designated as “food deserts,” places where it’s difficult to find fresh and healthy choices on the shelves.

It was a place ripe for change, advocates say.

The community grocery store movement in Newark dates back to October 2024, when Clinton Hill Community Action (CHCA) opened their location at 393 Hawthorne Avenue.

According to CHCA, their store on Hawthorne Avenue already has a track record of success. Within two years of opening, the supermarket has nearly 300 members who shop for their families there. It also stocks goods from 10 local Newark vendors on its shelves – all while selling items at little to no markup.

“We opened our community grocery store because our neighbors deserve fresh, good food sold with dignity – not a line to stand in,” said Khaatim Sherrer El, executive director of Clinton Hill Community Action.

The CHCA’s model has helped to form the blueprint for Newark’s five community grocery stores – and other groups are eager to take up the call to action, they said.

“By working together, we are leveraging our collective impact to bring down prices, reduce transportation expenses and support families in making healthier food choices,” said La Casa de Don Pedro president Peter Rosario.

Rosario said the nonprofit has received donations from six shoppers, including one $100 donation.

“This is a testament to how firmly people believe in this project,” Rosario said.

Craig Mainor, executive director of United Community Corporation, said the community grocery store movement show the “true power of public/private partnership.”

“This represents an important step toward increasing access to healthy, affordable food for residents in underserved neighborhoods,” Mainor said.

The concept of using food to empower the community isn’t new in Newark, others said.

“While we have never operated a grocery store, we certainly know how to ‘do’ food,” said Vesta Godwin Clark, executive director of St. James Social Service Corporation. “Each year, we distribute more than 401 tons of food through our emergency food pantry and soul food café soup kitchen, helping thousands of individuals and families throughout our community.”

The new stores come after the success of emergency "Food Hubs" that were set up in each of the five wards during the government shutdown last winter, officials said.

Mayor Ras Baraka has been among those pushing to make the program permanent.

In August, the mayor joined a virtual “people’s assembly” to discuss the new grocery stores alongside the groups that will be running them. According to Baraka and other speakers at the forum, the stores are an expansion – not a replacement – of the city’s existing network of food pantries, farmers markets, urban gardens and other local resources.

• Related: Newark Food Pantry Shines After Supermarket-Style Makeover

City officials have been sharing video clips as work on the new stores progressed over the summer.

“Opening a low-cost grocery store in every ward guarantees that every Newark resident has access to healthy, affordable food – close to home,” officials said, sharing a clip of the new store on New Street.

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