Eat to Live Food Cooperative opens on Syracuse’s south side

SYRACUSE — Syracuse University’s (SU) South Side Initiative Office and the Southside Community Coalition on Tuesday formally opened the Eat to Live Food Cooperative at 2327 S. Salina St. in Syracuse.

Organizers and project stakeholders held a small ceremony to mark the occasion.

The 3,000-square-foot grocery store and café features healthy food and produce from local farms and distributors.

The resident member-owners will run the cooperative along with an elected board of directors, SU said in a news release.

Shirley Rowser is serving as president of the cooperative’s board of directors.

Residents and organizations on Syracuse’s south side had the idea to “satisfy the need for affordable and fresh food in the neighborhood,” said Joseph Bryant, president of the Southside Community Coalition.

“Basically, it’s a grocery store. Anybody can shop [here]. The difference between this and the traditional grocery store is the business model of being cooperatively owned,” Bryant said while speaking to reporters after the ceremony.

Nearly 100 shareholders own the cooperative, Bryant said. Every member-owner has equal voting rights and decision-making rights, he added.

The cooperative employs eight people, including a mix of full- and part-time employees, he said.  Bryant wasn’t sure if the employee count would increase over time.

A membership costs $100, the school said, and the cooperative will accept monthly payments.

The project to prepare the store cost about $1.5 million, Bryant said. The entire process started in 2007.

Grants from Empire State Development — through the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council (CNYREDC), National Grid, the Central New York Community Foundation, the Gifford Foundation, and the Allyn Foundation — provided most of the funding for the cooperative, Bryant said.

The CNYREDC grant totaled $394,000, Bryant said.

SU students and faculty in the School of Architecture, the College of Law, the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, and the School of Information Studies were also involved in the project as part of ongoing academic and engagement work, according to SU.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com