Eastside Vittles

Activists bring long-awaited market to East Lawrence

Monday, April 28, 2008

The southeast corner of 12th and Connecticut has been a busy place the past couple of months. And the six young community activists sweating and toiling in the building—holding fundraisers, painting walls, ripping up tile—have a big goal:

To bring a corner store stocked with healthy, local food to the heart of a working-class neighborhood, for cheap.

May sound nice, but that’s a pretty loaded sentence. Healthy, local and cheap—not to mention vegetarian—are terms that generally can’t be applied to food in East Lawrence. For years, the neighborhood hasn’t had a single grocery store within walking distance (Dillon’s at 17th and Massachusetts being the closest).

Danielle Loftus and David Miller, two of the people behind the soon-to-open Eastside People’s Market, met for an interview last week in the renovated building. With tables still set up from a recent art auction fundraiser, they had more work to do before they open the cafe May 1 and the grocery store one month later.

Eastside People's Market Cafe Opening

When: Thursday, May 1, 2008, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Eastside People's Market, 409 E. 12th St., Lawrence
Cost: Not available
Age limit: All ages

Full event details

But they’re in the home stretch of what started about eight months ago with meetings between friends, all with different skills. Loftus and Miller, for instance, had run a small vegan bakery out of their kitchen in Philadelphia for three years before moving to Lawrence in August, and others had experience with community organizing and finance.

Eventually, six people came to form the core of the project, and in February, after months of talk, they signed a lease with Odessa Shorter, who used to run Odessa’s Cafe out of the building. They’ve been steadily pushing forward since then, attaining the proper certifications, talking with local venders, holding fundraisers—they’ve raised enough that they haven’t had to spend any of their own money—and fixing up the building.

Their magic formula for selling healthy food at a low price may be that they’re not trying to make a lot of money. The business is a non-profit, meaning that after the six of them are paid, the rest pumps back into the store.

“It’s definitely going to be different than other stores,” Loftus says.

Photo by Frank Tankard

Danielle Loftus (left) and David Miller in front of the Eastside People's Market.

Photo by Frank Tankard

The interior of the market.

The tables and chairs used for the cafe seating were all salvaged, and East Lawrence residents have donated items like tools and shelving. The six of them thought up some creative ways to raise cash, like selling gift certificates that gain worth over time, similar to saving bonds ($100 is worth $115 of goods after six months).

They’ve gone door to door handing out surveys to see what residents want, they held a contest to design the store logo, and at 1 p.m. on May 4 they’re inviting residents to design a mural that local artist Dave Lowenstein is going to paint on the wall.

Getting a bit ahead of themselves, they hope the store will serve as a staple of East Lawrence, and even a launching pad for future community projects, with profits being used to fund like-minded ideas by other community members.

“We want to see more of these things,” Miller says.

As Loftus and Miller walked outside of the store after the interview, a middle-aged man passing by on his bike stopped and said, “East Lawrence is excited.” «

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Posted by leslie (Leslie vonHolten) on May 1, 2008 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Can't wait! Say--who designed the logo? I like it.

Eastside Vittles

Activists bring long-awaited market to East Lawrence

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