Published in the Cooperative Development Institute
Lewiston, Maine — The Lewiston-Auburn Community Market, a multistakeholder cooperative business whose mission is to increase food access and bolster local economies in underserved communities, entered a sales agreement with the city of Lewiston to build a cooperative food market at the location of a former police station.
The city is selling the 1-acre lot, located at 171 Park Street, to the cooperative for $2,000. The co-op will need to raise additional funds to demolish the police station, which is expected to cost more than $400,000. The co-op is currently raising money for the demolition work, which includes safe demolition, site clean up, environmental assessments, foundation work, permitting, and early construction steps. Click here to make a donation.
The Lewiston-Auburn Community Market (LACM) is a cooperatively owned and operated service-at-cost business made up of local farmers, producers, and community members. They plan to build in the space a new 20,000-square-foot grocery store with a shared commercial kitchen and cafeteria. The rentable kitchen also includes rentable dry/cold food storage space for local food entrepreneurs and community members.
The market will source from local farmers, fishermen, and producers, and aims to keep food affordable, while providing dozens of new local jobs. LACM will pay property taxes and aims to generate economic activity in the downtown community.
LACM has lined up funding for the project from interested regional and national funding partners, and is working with a nonprofit called Evernorth to obtain a New Market Tax Credit allocation.
“By providing space for our local farmers, fishermen, and producers, we aim to create quality work opportunities that support and empower our diverse community,” said Mumina Isse, Vice President of LACM’s Board. “Our goal is to provide food access, affordability as well as culturally preferred food availability, which we achieve by our inherent multinational cultural dynamic. Collectively, our purpose is to be a place and space that feels like home to anyone participating in any way, members and community members alike.”
LACM Cooperative, which incorporated as a Maine business in 2022, is led by a member board representing a wide range of communities and speaking eight languages. Four members are active or beginner farmers/producers and others are a part of existing or new food-based and child-care cooperatives.
Cooperative Development Institute (CDI) is supporting LACM with education, training and technical assistance. CDI is also supporting a growing wave of other cooperative business startups in the region, including four new co-ops in Lewiston and one in Wales.
Gather to Grow, a local non-profit formerly known as the St. Mary’s Nutrition Center, has also been supporting LACM since 2006.
To make a donation, visit LACM’s Gofundme page here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-LACM
For press inquiries, please contact Heather Holland, CDI’s Communications Director at hholland@cdi.coop.