Healthy Food Financing For Seward

Faced with capacity crowds at its existing store, Seward Community Cooperative in Minneapolis, Minn., turned to its longtime partners to raise affordable, flexible capital for two expansions. Opened in 2015, these two new sites now offer a new grocery in an area with limited access to healthy food options, and a café, administrative offices, and food production facility. Working collaboratively with private and public workforce development programs, the co-op is creating new living-wage jobs with benefits for residents in the neighborhoods surrounding their locations. The store itself was built using environmentally friendly, sustainable products and services, and a focus on healthy and sustainable products carries through to the food choices on the shelves and at the restaurant. MMCDC provided $8.48 million of the required $15 million in project financing.