!["When [Malik Yakini] and I were discussing the make up of the store, he mentioned he wanted the bright orange colors — the colors that you don't traditionally see in grocery stores," Akil Talley, general manager of the co-op, said. "He wanted that to stand out in the building itself."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5479f91/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3456x2129+0+88/resize/880x542!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F85%2Ff6%2F7665c63b4ef29d9322b8395d6ac9%2F2024-04-30-detroitco-op-creditmercedesmejia-3.jpg)
After 14 years of organizing and building, the Detroit People’s Food Co-op will open its doors on Wednesday, May 1st, with a grand opening celebration to follow on Saturday, May 18th.
Located in the city’s North End, the two-story brick building on Woodward is hard to miss, with its bright orange and chartreuse green roof. Volunteers and contractors joined the co-op’s team of 29 staffers in spending the NFL Draft weekend making final preparations.
The project was fathered by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN). Malik Yakini, who co-founded the group, currently serves as its executive director. It’s been a long journey for the team.
“There were some very low moments, believe me. But, I'm rooted in a sense of spirituality. And so the way I function is, … I claim the victory,” Yakini said. “So I always knew it was going to happen.”
A long-term commitment
“We started working on this day-to-day in 2010, but even before that, the idea first emerged in 2006,” Yakini said.
After the Cass Corridor Food Co-op closed its doors in the mid-2000s, its former patrons devised a new food system.
“If I remember the story correctly, [Yakini] and the DBCFSN staff wanted something to replace it,” Akil Talley, general manager of the Detroit People’s Food Co-op, said. “So they started a food-buying club. They would get together and buy food in bulk, and then divvy it up amongst everybody in the club.”
The Detroit People’s Food Co-op has been gathering member owners since 2014. In return for a one-time fee of $200, members have a say in what products are offered at the store. Construction on the building began in April 2020. It was a challenge Yakini said, to convince the community to buy into an establishment that had yet to be built.
“But I can tell you that things accelerated after we started construction and all the chatter from the naysayers was shut down,” Yakini said, “And there's many people now – as they see we're getting closer to opening day – there's many people who are rushing to now become member owners.”
A modern, community-driven co-op
“I've been told that there is a stigma that comes along with co-ops, that it’s kind of like hoity-toity, you know, a little on the higher end, which is true,” Talley said. “But I think it speaks more so to the aspirations of the co-op, that they want to provide the highest-quality products and local produce for the community that they serve.”
Yakini said that he’s mindful of how his food is sourced, and maintains a vegan and organic diet. But he recognizes that not everyone in the community can afford to do the same.
“We have to deal with the economic realities of the community that we're in,” Yakini said. “And so we want to make sure that when people from the neighborhood come in to get a can of soup, they can get that. And at the same time, if somebody wants to come in and buy organic quinoa from Bolivia, you know, maybe we'll have that too.”
!["I do not want to be centered," Yakini said. "It's not about some individual. The strength of [the project] is it is a team, and it's a collective effort."](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/596332e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3456x2304+0+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8e%2F35%2F1fd85d8c40a687aa9b4f770a48d8%2F2024-04-30-detroitco-op-creditroniacabansag-5.jpg)
Yakini said that originally, 80% of items shelved in the store were going to be natural and organic, while 20% would be conventional. Now, the split is closer to 50-50.
The second floor of the co-op is home to four kitchens and a banquet hall that can seat up to 250 people. These can be used for a whole range of community events, Talley said, from cooking classes, to event rental space, to food storage and prep space for local business owners, to incubator kitchens.
“The potential is limitless,” Talley said.
Planning for the future
Talley previously worked at Whole Foods, starting in the prepared foods department, and eventually working his way up to a managerial position. One major difference he’s noted between the corporate and co-op worlds, he said, is the level of intentionality the co-op’s team members bring to every stage of planning.
“We have meetings with our board members on a monthly basis where we intentionally devise plans on how we're going to affect a community, or how we can make a bigger footprint within a community, or what it will look like four or five years down the line to open a co-op in another part of the city,” Talley said.
Since day one, the team's central mission has been, and continues to be, food sovereignty for Detroit. Across the country, Yakini said, bigger firms are buying up smaller firms, reducing the number of places where common groceries are actually sourced.
“Part of what we're working on is really not just addressing access, but addressing the questions of who shapes the food system, who owns it, who benefits from it,” Yakini said. “And really, we're trying to make a shift in power from the corporate side of things, controlling things to actually having a food system that is shaped by, controlled by, and serves people.”
