The Renaissance Community Cooperative (RCC) is a community-owned grocery store that will open in Northeast Greensboro, on the corner of Phillips and Sykes Avenue. The RCC will bring fresh, healthy, and affordable food to North East Greensboro, which has been identified as a food desert. I have had the privilege of working to get the cooperative started over the past three years and of serving on the board over the past year. This work speaks to me as an aspiring Public Health professional, because it addresses root causes of health disparities that the community in Northeast Greensboro is facing, specifically a lack of economic development that is responsible to the community in which it occurs.
As a business owned by the community, the RCC will make North East Greensboro less vulnerable to many of the market forces that pull other businesses out of many low-income, predominantly African American neighborhoods. Its owners are primarily residents of North East Greensboro, but include supporters from across the city and nation who have invested $100 in a lifetime, voting share of the cooperative. The cooperative is open to any individual who wishes to join.
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by Casey Thomas