Kensington Community Food Co-op Signs Lease on Storefront Location

The Kensington Community Food Co-op (KCFC) signed a lease on a storefront yesterday, April 15, ending months of searching. The co-op has organized without a storefront for nearly six years and has managed to build a membership of 390 members.

The exact location of the co-op will be announced on May 4 at an event held at the Philadelphia Brewing Company. Lena Helen, president and founder of the co-op, did confirm that the storefront will be in the 19125 zip code.

Helen also told Generocity that street visibility, parking, access to the community and proximity to a commercial corridor were all factors in the decision. So for those familiar with the Kensington neighborhood, a little guess-work may be fun between now and then.

The site search committee has been looking at this location since August, Helen explained, but financial aspects such as the length of the lease and the cost of rent had to worked out. A $25,000 grant from The Reinvestment Fund, a community lender based in Philadelphia, has helped with this process.

The Board of Directors are still working out the exact timeline for when the store will open, but 2014 will nonetheless be a busy year for the co-op. Helen said that the business plan will be completed by the end of May, at which time the co-op will begin seeking financing from commercial lenders.

Simultaneously, the co-op will solicit members to make loans in the range of $1,000 to $10,000. These loans, in addition to membership fees — which are equity in the co-op — should make up around 40 percent of the capital financing needed to open the store, according to Helen.

(Image via KCFC.)