Non-Profit, City-Run Grocery Stores

Apr 27
2 min read

Updated: Jun 8

By: Dakota Cherry

Cities like Toronto and New York are starting to explore something that would’ve sounded unusual not that long ago: city-run grocery stores.

The idea is pretty simple. If cities can run libraries, community centres, and public transit, why not explore a model where they also play a role in making food more affordable? Especially when food banks are stretched thin.

At its core, this is about treating food as something essential, not a product to maximize profit on.

Because right now, a handful of large corporations dominate the grocery landscape in Canada. That concentration of power comes with real consequences. We’ve already seen it in cases like bread price fixing, where everyday essentials were manipulated in ways that directly impacted people’s cost of living. When so much control sits with so few players all immersed in the same game, communities have very little leverage.

City-run grocery stores offer a different approach. Not to replace the private market entirely, but to introduce a public option that prioritizes affordability, transparency, and access, especially in areas with few viable alternatives. Looking at the example of USA commissaries, where grocery stores are run by the Department of Defense to provide affordable food for military personnel and veterans, we have our North Star.

While a grocery store on its own cannot solve food insecurity, which is tied to income, housing, transportation, and volatile world markets, it will give communities actually greater over their food systems locally. That’s where Guelph has a real opportunity.

We already have deep expertise here, from the University of Guelph to local organizations working on food access every day. If we’re going to explore a model like this, it should be done thoughtfully, in partnership with the people who understand the system best.

Ultimately, these stores ask: what would it look like to build a food system that puts people over profit?