× Expand Robert Zammarchi

McDonald’s and a Mobil gas station.

These are the only places to buy food in Cassandra Sonko’s neighborhood. Sonko, who lives in the Allied Drive area with her three kids, thinks that’s unacceptable. “Food shouldn’t be a privilege. It’s a right,” she says.

The low-income neighborhood on Madison’s southwest side has been without a full-service grocery store since Cub Foods on Verona Road closed its doors in 2009. As a result, healthy foods like fresh fruits and vegetables aren’t readily available. “It takes hours to go to a grocery store on a bus, and the cheapest cab ride is $12,” says Sonko, who sees the dearth of healthy food in her neighborhood as a health crisis. “You can get a lot of food at McDonald’s for $12, so see the problem we face here.”

After seeing her kids’ health suffer as well as her own, Sonko began working with Allied Community Cooperative to bring a real grocery store to the area. She is now in her second term as president of the community group.

Residents like Cassandra Sonko never expected to be opening their own grocery store.

The nonprofit successfully lobbied city officials to join its cause last year. The city initially approved $300,000 to offer aid as an incentive to an established grocer willing to open a store in the neighborhood. Sonko says they were hoping for a business to come in and save the day. “But there were zero responses. Not from Woodman’s, Walmart, Metcalfe’s, Hy-Vee, Copps, nobody. So that’s when we knew we had to do it ourselves.”

Allied Community Cooperative put together its own proposal, and the city awarded the $300,000 to the group to open a community-owned and-operated grocery store. The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives and the Willy Street Co-op are contributing expertise and staff time to the project.

The ambitious proposal changed the city’s thinking on the project, says Mark Woulf, food and alcohol policy director for the city of Madison. “Instead of getting an outside retailer who may or may not respond to the needs of the neighborhood, this is a direct investment in the community,” Woulf says.

Next month, the Allied Community Cooperative will begin a market feasibility study and start writing a business plan. By the end of the summer, it hopes to hire a project manager.

The cooperative is expected to need an additional $700,000 before breaking ground on a new neighborhood food market. If all goes according to plan, the store will open in 2018. “This is difficult work, but the community is very committed to making this happen,” says Woulf.

Mayor Paul Soglin is optimistic about the project. “Its success means an opportunity to locally solve the food security challenge in other parts of Madison,” says Soglin. He is also looking forward to the jobs that the co-op will create.

Stephanie Rearick, founder of the Dane County TimeBank, a volunteer network for individuals and organizations, has also been working with the Allied Community Cooperative in its organizing efforts.

“There are a lot of demands on neighborhood leaders to volunteer time, to make up for deficits in the neighborhood that they are not responsible for. They have great skill sets and are extremely dedicated,” says Rearick. “But there aren’t a lot of retired accountants and lawyers with free time to start a complicated business organization.” She says donations of both time and money from outside the neighborhood will be essential to making the new store a reality.

Sonko is undaunted by the obstacles that lie ahead: “We didn’t set out to be grocers, but we have to do it. Our lives depend on it.”