A new working group met for the first time Monday with the shared goal of improving food access among college students – possibly by bringing a grocery store to Uptown Normal.
About 20 people convened at Illinois State University for Monday’s meeting of the Assessing Concrete Community-wide Equitable Solutions Sustainably (ACCESS) group. They heard the results of a survey conducted by an affiliated group called Citizens for Equitable Food Access (CEFA), which recently asked over 1,110 college student and 200 Uptown residents and workers about their access to food. WGLT interviewed CEFA’s leaders in December.
That survey found about half of ISU students don’t have access to a car, making it difficult to reach a real grocery store like Jewel or Kroger. Over 97% of students said they’d like to see a grocery open in Uptown Normal, and 75% said they’ve bought groceries at the CVS in Uptown Normal, which can be expensive. ISU students expressed a desire for access to quick foods, hot-and-ready meals, and fresh produce.
“The survey work they’ve done will be very instrumental in figuring out what direction the ACCESS initiative is going to take. If we hadn’t had these survey results, we could assume so many different things about what students want or community members want,” said Lawrence Landfair, who works in ISU’s Dean of Students Office and convened the group. “Later down the line, we can do further surveys in hopes of finding out more specific key pieces about what students want.”
CEFA’s research also included case studies of other U.S. college towns with small groceries near their campus, such as in Iowa City (Iowa) and Ithaca, New York (Cornell). Its full report was delivered to Normal Mayor Chris Koos, who the group says is supportive of the idea.
Indeed, supporters say the idea may need Town of Normal assistance to actually happen. The group discussed several possibilities Monday, including direct subsidies for local entrepreneurs opening a small grocery in Uptown, zoning changes to encourage the sale of fresh foods Uptown, or expediting permitting for grocers.
“Maybe ACCESS finds that we don’t need a regular brick-and-mortar grocery store. We need delivery trucks. Or we need an online-type (option). Maybe they find all three of those options are needed. That’s the point of ACCESS – to find the solution that’s actually going to solve the issue, not necessarily what our standard options are,” Landfair said.
This is certainly not the first time an Uptown grocery has been considered. The town itself paid for a feasibility study nine years ago, as the Green Top Grocery co-op was trying to decide where to locate. Green Top considered locations inside the College Avenue parking deck and south of the tracks. Ultimately, Green Top chose to locate instead on Washington Street in Bloomington.
And this is not the first attempt at addressing food insecurity at ISU. The School Street Food Pantry opened in 2018, located inside Normal First United Methodist Church. The pantry is open for distribution from 4-6 p.m. Fridays from August to May.
Landfair said one of ACCESS’ priorities is to ensure longevity of the idea – so that it outlasts any one student’s graduation day. He said ACCESS planned to elect a group chair at Monday’s meeting, and to work underneath the umbrella of ISU’s Office of Sustainability, which has a strategic plan aimed in part at increasing local, sustainable, and diverse food options and the availability and consumption of local fresh produce on campus.
“Students come up with many initiatives or ideas over time, but if it’s not homegrown into the departments and into the town, it can easily fizzle out. So that’s why I wanted to make sure we pass it on to someone who’s going to stay here for awhile,” Landfair said.
