Managers of the Eat to Live Food Cooperative in downtown Syracuse have secured grants from three foundations that will help ensure that it will reopen.

“We got a financial package pending that will help us have sufficient working capital when we reopen,” said Howie Hawkins, a member of the board for the cooperative. “It will pay for the labor and goods.”

Eat to Live, located at 2323 S. Salina St., opened last fall and remained open for only a few months before closing. It closed due to the high cost, over $800,000, of building the actual store, which led to cost overruns. The store is a co-op, meaning that shoppers pay dues to be able to buy food at the store as opposed to paying for groceries during each visit.

The store relies solely on donations to remain open, and a lack of donations in its beginning months also contributed to the store’s closure.

However, over the winter holidays, donations and grants from the Allyn Foundation, the Gifford Foundation and the Central New York Community Foundation have contributed to its reopening.

The board of directors has been holding meetings over the past few months with local residents, discussing the possible reopening and securing donations, Hawkins said.

Foundations such as the Gifford Foundation give grants to city projects, like the Eat to Live Food Cooperative, in order to improve the quality of life for the residents of central New York, said foundation manager Kim Vanderhoef.

The cooperative had raised over $25,000 as of mid-March. Each of the three foundations gave $5,000, and the remaining $10,000 was donated by an anonymous donor, according to the Eat to Live Food Cooperative’s Facebook page.

Eat to Live will supply fresh food to local areas, focusing on produce, dairy and meat products, Hawkins said. In areas like the South Side of Syracuse, access to fresh food is scarce. Many citizens living in these areas are not able to buy healthy, affordable groceries, Hawkins said.

“It’s called a food desert,” said Hawkins, “These people are unable to buy food for themselves.”

Over half the South Side in Syracuse does not own cars, which makes it even harder for those who already have low access to food. The Eat to Live Food Cooperative will hopefully solve that problem by bringing fresh food right into the neighborhood, Hawkins said.

“We want (the Food Cooperative) to be a go-to place for people looking for food in this neighborhood,” Hawkins said.

In the future, the store will hopefully establish a delivery system to bring groceries right to people’s door. This program could help elderly or disabled patrons who cannot make it out to buy groceries, Hawkins said.

Donations made by the three foundations went to specific aspects of the reopening of the cooperative. For example, money granted by the Allyn Foundation to the Food Bank of CNY has gone toward delivering food to those in need.

The store is expected to open sometime this year, though Hawkins said they do not have a set date yet for the opening. Planning for this store began as early as 2006, led by the Southside Community Coalition, which was founded at Syracuse University.

Correction: In a previous version of this article, the purpose of the donation from the Allyn Foundation to the Food Bank of CNY was misstated. The donation was used to deliver food directly to those in need through the foundation’s emergency food programs. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on March 31, 2015 at 10:00 pm

Contact Hanna: hrhorvat@syr.edu