For many, a food co-op still conjures a “crunchy granola” store serving affluent, mostly white shoppers. Early trade guidance even suggested locating new co-ops in neighborhoods where residents were “better educated (college or graduate school), with incomes that are slightly above average, with occupation types that are more white-collar and professional in nature,” a message that unintentionally signaled that people of color and low-income households were not the intended audience.
Recent years have seen a shift. Black-led ventures such as Gem City Market in Dayton, Ohio, and Detroit People’s Food Co-op in Michigan have opened doors, changing ownership, leadership, and product mixes. These stores aim to serve communities that have long faced limited access to fresh, affordable food.
Rise of a Fourth Wave
Data compiled by JQ Hannah, director of the Food Co-op Initiative, shows that between 2005 and 2016 only 5 percent of new food co-ops were led by Black or other people of color. By 2018 that share rose to 22 percent, and a 2026 snapshot indicates roughly half of all new co-ops fall outside the traditional natural-food model, many being Black-led urban projects.
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Jessica Gordon Nembhard, a political economist at John Jay College, describes this surge as a “fourth wave” of Black cooperative formation, echoing earlier bursts in the 1880s, 1930s, and 1960s. She notes that today Black organizers are moving beyond mutual-aid circles to formal cooperatives that embed solidarity economics into everyday commerce.
Historical records reveal that the “granola” stereotype stems from the 1960s counterculture, when co-ops focused on organic niche markets. Earlier, however, grocery-style co-ops were common. By 1944, cooperatives counted about 690,000 member-owners nationwide, outnumbering today’s total of roughly 1.3 million. In the 1930s, a Harlem Black co-op forced a nearby A&P to close, and the Berkeley Food Co-op once operated 12 supermarkets with sales exceeding $83 million.
Community-Driven Organizing
The modern push often begins with local activism. In West Dayton, organizers responded to the 2014 police shooting of John Crawford III at a Walmart by forming a group that later prioritized a co-op. Amaha Sellassie, president of Gem City Market, says the effort started simply as “we needed a grocery store,” yet the city’s segregation meant the resulting co-op would naturally be Black-led when it opened in 2021.
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Earlier, the Renaissance Community Cooperative in Greensboro, North Carolina, launched in 2016 with support from a local foundation and municipal partners. Its founders later identified rising dollar-store competition, staffing challenges, and limited marketing as factors that led to its closure in January 2019.
These experiences have informed a broader strategy. Organizers now emphasize larger capital reserves, robust core membership, and continuous movement-building. They also push consulting firms to abandon the assumption that successful co-ops must follow the organic-only model, a bias highlighted by consultant Jade Barker, who observed that, “In the mor
Training programs for board members and staff have improved, and events like the Up & Coming Conference now regularly feature a “Black-led day,” a development that has helped shift attendee demographics.
