Could a CT grocery store work with income-based prices? One city’s plan could become a model; see how it works

HARTFORD — In a city struggling to build a viable ecosystem that delivers fresh, healthful groceries, a new food shopping alternative is poised to emerge in one of Hartford’s most impoverished areas — one that could become a model for other city neighborhoods.

In Hartford’s Frog Hollow, The Grocery on Broad — near the recently opened Fire by Forge restaurant, the former Firebox — will offer shoppers the opportunity to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy and ingredients to prepare meals. Prices will be discounted based on individual and family income and can be combined with other low-income subsidies such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

“So we know that in this neighborhood, there are a lot of people who struggle with food insecurity,” said Ben Dubow, executive director of the Hartford-based nonprofit Forge City Works, which will operate the market. “And so, this is one way, kind of a dignified way of addressing that.”

Dubow said the new market on Broad Street isn’t meant to replace food pantries and other sources of food, or compete with, say, the Key Food supermarket, in neighboring Parkville.

“And this certainly is not the solution to Hartford’s grocery problem long-term,” Dubow said. “But we think of it as a way to supplement food access that works in a neighborhood.”

Dubow said he hopes the model also will work in other neighborhoods where buying nutritious food and meal ingredients such as rice, beans and other grains is a challenge.

The store opening is expected by early January and comes amid a decades-long debate over how to expand healthful, affordable food shopping options in Hartford. Last month, the city council approved hiring a consultant to examine the viability of a city-owned grocery store in Hartford’s North End, with a report due back in six months.

Hartford has just one major, full-service supermarket, the Stop & Shop on New Park Avenue. In 2020, the opening of a Key Food supermarket in the city’s Parkville neighborhood — about a third of the size of Stop & Shop but still considered full-service — represented a modest step forward. Throughout the city, there is a constellation of smaller markets — CTown, Bravo, Save-A-Lot, bodegas and convenience stores — that vary widely in the offering of healthful foods, some barely at all.

The developer of the North Crossing project around Dunkin’ Park has included a full-service grocery in a future phase of the development. But litigation between the city and the former developer has left a timetable uncertain for future construction, already delayed for more than a year.

For Hartford residents, shopping for groceries also can mean long, costly bus rides out of the city to suburban supermarkets and where high prices can mean making difficult choices among essentials. And for families most in need, securing weekly meals may mean cobbling together what is purchased at stores with what is given out a food pantries.

Martha Page, chair of the Hartford Advisory Commission on Food Policy, said the evolution of bringing more healthy food options to Hartford will likely build on smaller efforts such as the one now being embarked upon by Forge City Works.

“There is potential for several models that all contribute to doing that successfully,” said Page, the former, longtime executive director of the Hartford Food System, whose mission is to provide access to affordable and healthful food. “And so the commission on food policy is excited about what Forge City is trying. How the experience plays out, what it looks like when it opens versus what it looks like two years from now, may not be the same thing.”

The Grocery on Broad is an experiment, Page said, and has been tried in similar approaches elsewhere in the country with some success, Page said.

“It is something that has the potential to work and be a good piece of the puzzle,” Page said. “It also has the capability to keep people’s and city leadership’s attention on that this is an ongoing issue about how it is that Hartford residents get food.”

Destigmatize the process

Frog Hollow, within four blocks of the State Capitol, is one of the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods in the state, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Strong Communities that advocates for an end to homelessness and expansion of affordable housing.

The median household income in Connecticut is $65,521 compared with $27,051 in Hartford overall and $17,333 in Frog Hollow. At 16%, Frog Hollow has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state. About 90% of residents are renters, nearly 80% of whom have moved in the last year. And half are spending more than the recommended 35% of their income of housing, which puts a strain on budgets for groceries.

“An additional discount would be a huge relief on extremely tight budgets,” Chelsea Ross, the partnership’s executive director, said. “So folks who are already needing food assistance  to feed their families have an additional benefit  on top of that is huge.”

The Grocery on Broad will begin, at least, at a modest size, about 2,000 square feet, in studio and event space across the parking lot from Fire by Forge, also operated by the Forge City Works.

The grocery, operated in partnership with Connecticut Foodshare, is opening with the innovative use of a $142,000 Hart Lift storefront grant, a program funded with federal pandemic relief funds. Hart Lift seeks to revitalize vacant storefronts throughout the city and also was instrumental in the reopening of Fire by Forge.

The Hart Lift grant combined with a $250,000 federal grant secured with the help of the office of U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, Dubow said.

Customers meeting income guidelines can qualify for either 50% or 25% discounts on purchases by signing up for a free membership. If a potential customer doesn’t meet income guidelines, a membership still carries a 3% discount. Walk-ins off the street also will be welcome but would pay full price.

Dubow said a one-page application provides for “self-certification” of income. So far, Forge City Works has signed up 50 members at its weekly pop-up markets in the space that will become The Grocery on Broad. Applications also will be taken once the market opens.

“You don’t have to bring every bill you had or show that kind of stuff,” Dubow said.

Members would then be given a card that would be swiped at the end of the grocery shopping trip, deducting the discount.

“We’re trying to destigmatize the whole process,” Dubow said. “So no one has to know who’s getting discounts and who’s not.”

So far, Forge City Works has signed up 50 members at its weekly pop-up markets in the space that will become The Grocery on Broad. Applications also will be taken once the market opens.

The market fits well with Forge City Work’s main mission of increasing access to healthy food and its training program for city’s youth for careers in the hospitality and restaurant industries. Some of the trainees will prepare grab-and-go items that will be sold at the new grocery.

The idea behind the market also is to not necessarily to clear a profit but to break-even. To do so, Dubow said he expects Forge City works will have to raise $100,000-$150,000 a year to subsidize the venture.

‘Tremendous and increasing strain’

The Grocery on Broad has caught the attention of Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who supports a similar initiative in the city’s North End.

“For a long time we have been working on ways to expand access to fresh, healthy foods,” Bronin said. “But beyond the need for convenient access to fresh healthy food, there is a tremendous and increasing strain on many families’ budgets and the ability to afford that.”

“You’ve seen need and demand at food pantries skyrocket and this model that allows for residents to pay what they can to get the food that they need, and is an important piece of bigger puzzle to address food insecurity,” Bronin said.

The nonprofit, Keney Park Sustainability Project, which has a heavy emphasis on promoting urban farming and nutritional education around it, is likely to be involved in the effort.

Herb E. Virgo, KPSP’s founder and executive director, said he hopes to learn from the rollout of The Grocery on Broad.

The push for a similar grocery store in the North End is only in the earliest stages, and a location still has to be found. One possibility is a city-owned building on Capen Street in a storefront that was once a dry cleaner. But funds still need to be found for an environmental clean-up on the site, Virgo said.

There are likely to be differences from Forge City Works’ venture, which will stock its shelves using vendors.

“Our model is going to be a little different because we want our farmers to be part of the grocery store process,” Virgo said. “We want them to grow a part of the produce that is sold in the grocery store.”

Virgo said the effort to open more modest grocers with income-based approaches shows a lot of promise, but that should not take the emphasis off attracting another supermarket to the city.

“So we also have to continue to find a big grocery store operator and get that in place as well,” Virgo said, “but creating these local neighborhood options in the meantime — just in case that doesn’t happen.”