OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Plans are in the works for a new co-op grocery store in Oshkosh.
The site for the store announced this weekend.
Shawn Pollack makes and sells his pizzas out of a kitchen attached to a shed on his family farm in Van Dyne.
“The big struggle with starting a business here on the farm and being so small is that I’m only open one day a week now.”
So he, along with hundreds of other local farmers and producers, have come together to bring a co-op to Oshkosh.
“A co-op is a different style of business ownership where members of a community come together to start a business,” said Brenda Haines board president of the Oshkosh co-op
The co-op plans to source 20 percent of its goods from growers and producers within the region.
“We’re lucky because Wisconsin has great farmers, growers, and producers. We live in a very prosperous area,” said Haines.
Still, she tells FOX 11, this part of Oshkosh is a food desert. The U.S Department of Agriculture considers a food desert a community where at least 33 percent of its population live more than a mile from a grocery store.
“This is a place that a community needs to roll up its sleeves and come together to start a grocery store and that’s exactly what’s happening here.”
The store will take up about 8,000 square feet of space at the intersection of Jackson and Pearl. Haines says builders plan to break ground by May. The five-story building will be a mixed-use property with 53 market-rate apartments above the grocery store.
For Pollack, this means a bigger outlet for people who want to shop locally.
“The more people that hear about it the more people are going to be excited about it.”
The co-op launched a $1.6 million campaign. It’s asking it’s members and others interested to help support the community-owned grocery store.
