The continued skyrocketing cost of food has sparked renewed interest in public or socialized grocery stores, in particular after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed opening five such stores in various boroughs, with the first store scheduled to open in 2027. The city will purchase the land and cover construction/capital costs, while private or non-profit operators will manage daily operations to keep prices low.
Here in Vancouver, the recent closure of the very affordable Sunrise Food Market in the Downtown Eastside has brought the issue to our own doorstep. A previous VNFN post also suggested that it is time for a public food store in the DTES, especially in light of poor healthy food access and retail in that community. This post helped ignite a local discussion on the issue and also led the Coalition to help draft a Vancouver City Council motion, defeated by the ABC dominated council, to pilot a publicly owned grocery store in Vancouver.
A week later Toronto City Council passed a similar motion to open and pilot four municipally operated grocery stores within the City of Toronto. Priority will be given to neighbourhoods with limited access to full-service grocery stores and where residents have lower average household incomes.
As food insecurity rates grow to all-time highs, now with 25% of the Canadian population who experience food insecurity, we must consider all measures to address this problem. Within a suite of government funded social programs such as social housing, childcare, income assistance and others, public grocers make sense and support the right to food that Canada has acknowledged in its signing of various international human rights agreements.
“The right to food is a fundamental human right, recognized under international law, that entitles every individual to have physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or the means for its procurement. It emphasizes the right to feed oneself in dignity rather than merely being fed” (The United Nations Special Rapperture on the Right to Food).
Combined with income policy advocacy, the VNFNs support public food access that can offset rapacious capitalism, especially in light of the growing concentration of large food retailers and their escalating profit margins. The privatization of our food system and commodification of food has resulted in deep inequities. Rather, food should be treated as a public good, much like public transit or water, which is fully and freely accessible to all members of society despite one’s socio-economic status rather than a good to be profited off.
Community Food Markets
Detractors of publicly funded grocery stores will point to the high cost and non-viability of these operations. Competing against the mega large retailers is an uphill battle and any brick and mortar publicly run food store would remain highly dependent on significant public funding to achieve its goal of affordable food access.
However, this misses the essential point that food could be available through non-competitive, non-capitalist market systems. As a public good, we can find ways of making food fully accessible. A wealth tax could easily pay for a public food system.
Enter community food markets rooted in community as a more cost effective form of food distribution that could easily be scaled up with a modest increase in funding. These markets, including several that the VNFNs organize, are already in operation at the community level, providing low barrier, highly affordable food through dignified approaches. Why not properly fund these existing markets.
Moreover, these markets are more than a retail food store. They build community by creating spaces for community connection, learning, and community care and support. They often take the form of weekly pop-up markets and are often co-located in community spaces. We describe below a few of the many community-based food markets already in operation here in Vancouver.
Grandview Woodland Food Connection Bulk Buy Food Club, Britannia Community Centre
The weekly Britannia Bulk Buy Food Club connects low-income participants with fresh produce at affordable wholesale prices. The club is centred around dignified food and reciprocity whereby participants pay a very reasonable fee to cover the cost of the food and receive 12-14 varieties of fruits and veggies plus access to supplemental food surplus donations. Wholesale purchasing is typically between 35% – 45% less than retail costs. Staffing costs are covered through grants. Because the program is not free, the stigma associated with charity food programs is reduced, and participants know that they are buying together with their neighbours and contributing to a community-based food system. The program currently has 170 families in the club, providing 2,064 veggie bags in 2025.
Little Mountain Neighborhood House Yard Garden Harvest Project and Food Distribution Program
Little Mountain Neighbourhood House’s Yard Garden Harvest Project feeding into the house’s weekly Food Distribution program creates multiple channels for community food security. A team of volunteers, led by a garden coordinator, grow food across seven residential yards in the neighbourhood. The harvested produce (870 kg worth in 2025) is delivered to the Food Distribution program, feeding 170 households over the course of a year. What’s more, the recipients of this produce have a direct say in which crops get planted each season. Past favourites have been bok choy, lettuce, and other leafy greens. This reciprocal approach transforms underused lawns into fruitful sites for high-density urban agriculture, gardening education, and social connection. The end product is culturally informed food preferences and dignified, low-barrier food access in a welcoming communal space.
Kiwassa Neighbourhood House Community Market
The best known affordable community food market in East Vancouver was the Kiwassa community market at both Pandora Park and Kiwassa Neighbourhood House but which recently closed down due to funding cuts and austerity measures. This weekly low-cost produce market served roughly 50 low income households each week on a first come basis with no registration requirements. The market operated on a break even basis purchasing wholesale food, while various revenue sources covered a total of 24 hrs of staff time. As grants allowed, the market was able to expand purchasing such as through the Tsawwassen First Nation Farm School, a program of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, rooted in the principles of regenerative agriculture and Indigenous food systems where they were able to offer community members a selection of local organic fruits and vegetables.
Washington Community Market, 179 East Hastings
For over 20 years, the Washington Community Market (WCM) has been providing affordable groceries and essential goods to residents, community organizations, and local businesses in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Founded by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) to be a local food security program serving the DTES community, PHS Community Services Society took over operations in 2011. In 2021, Community Impact Real Estate Society (CIRES) assumed management. The WCM serves 48 community organizations and approximately 1000 individual patrons weekly. It is a storefront community market run by a Market Manager with part-time Store Clerks. As a social enterprise of CIRES, the financials and oversight of the WCM are held by CIRES, and CIRES continues to subsidize the operations to keep the WCM running. The WCM’s long-term sustainability will be reliant on growing its customer base and/or securing additional funding to support operating costs. Better vendor prices will be reliant on additional demand, growing the scale it procures at.
Farm to Plate Marketplace
Farm to Plate Marketplace is a community-run virtual farmers market that creates more affordable and localised access to food by helping small groups of community members band together to purchase. By organising collective buying, members are able to purchase directly from farmers, vendors and other wholesalers benefiting from prices typically reserved for larger buyers while supporting locally sourced food wherever possible. The marketplace operates on a participation model, where members can either pay a small fee or contribute their time by taking on community roles to earn credits that cover the fee. By placing orders two days in advance with our suppliers, they only buy what is needed helping minimise food waste. Each community hub is created and maintained by its members, whether it’s based in a church, neighbourhood house, coffee shop, or even someone’s home, making the system flexible, local, and community-driven.
