中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
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 The Old North co-op, a community-run inner city grocery store, specializes in selling locally-grown produce. |
Old North resident Etta Adams says until now, she's had to do her shopping outside the neighborhood. "Well, there haven't been nothing over here - too much to - you know, to shop from."
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 Abandoned houses are a common sight in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. |
About 40 percent of households in this mostly African-American, low-to-middle income neighborhood don't have access to a car.
"The idea for a grocery store came directly from the residents." Lubischer says people in the neighborhood liked the idea of a food co-op: a community-owned grocery, where members would have a say in how the store would be run, and what products it would carry.
Almost all the work for the co-op project has been carried out by volunteers.
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 A diverse crowd fills the Old North Grocery Co-op on opening day. |
On Saturday, a diverse crowd packed into the newly-renovated one-storey brick building, for the grand opening of the Old North Grocery Co-op.
Neighborhood resident Gudayzke says he feels good about the new store: "I'm very happy about it. I don't know whether this will be my main stopping point or not, but it certainly does give me another option."
Luz Maria Evans agreed. "I mean it's great because now we can have something convenient to, to make the shopping's list. Everything you need. Near."
Old North St. Louis Restoration Group director Sean Thomas says the co-op will sell a variety of foods and household items. "This store will be structured to suit the tastes and desires of the community who are here, as well as other customers who might come from outside the neighborhood."
Thomas says the store will also rely as much as possible on local producers. "One of the farmers we've been working with from the very beginning is a guy named Rusty Lee."
Local produce
Lee and his family raise vegetables and livestock on his farm in Truxton, Missouri, about 100 kilometers west of St. Louis.
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 Farmer Rusty Lee supplies fresh meat and produce to the Old North Grocery Co-op. |
Old North resident Claretha Morant is grateful for Rusty Lee's efforts to bring fresh produce to her neighborhood. "For us peoples that don't have transportation and stuff, you know, that's a big improvement for us."
Without a car, Morant says she has had to depend on friends and neighbors to take her grocery shopping in other parts of the city. "And now, I can just go on my own, you know, just get the bus and go on my own now. I'm glad of that. I'm proud of it."
Organizers stress the co-op is open to all shoppers - not just members.
But in St. Louis, a community-run grocery is an untested concept. Its survival may depend on how willing area residents are to change their shopping and eating habits.
dilapidated: (of furniture and buildings) old and in very bad condition（家具和建筑物）破舊的；破爛的；年久失修的
co-op: a cooperative shop/store, society or business（合作商店；合作社；合作性商業機構）
Farming in the city: the joys of growing food
（來源：VOA 編輯：陳丹妮）
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