Farmer City hasn’t had a grocery store in seven years. Local citizens want that to change.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Laura Enger has lived in Farmer City for most of her life.

When the only grocery store in town closed over seven years ago, Enger said the community lost easy access to fresh food and produce.

“Once a town loses its grocery store, the heart of it sort of dies,” Enger said.

Enger spearheaded the movement to open a cooperative grocery store in Farmer City this year. Dozens of residents, both producers and consumers, have come to the steering committee’s community meetings and voiced their support for the project.

Residents would own the store themselves, while local producers would sell their products directly to consumers, Enger said.

“I love going to farmers markets in the summer. But why can’t we do that all year? Especially right here, with there being so many producers of all kinds of things,” Enger said.

Steering committee members have already had conversations with local producers of products like beef, bison, eggs and vegetables. There were 504 farms in De Witt County in 2017, which account for one percent of Illinois’ agriculture sales, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Sean Park, who is assisting with the project through his role at Western Illinois University, says that he’s impressed by Farmer City’s support for the project.

Park has helped many small towns open food cooperatives with local producers throughout the Midwest. In many other towns, community support typically comes from consumers. But in Farmer City, he said both groups are working together.

Source: illinoisnewsroom.org