A grocery store that serves more than produce –
The Community Grocer supports its Philadelphia neighborhood through workforce development and SNAP-eligible meal kits.

The Community Grocer (TCG) is rising to these challenges by developing a community-driven program at its flagship corner store in the neighborhood. The program will offer SNAP-eligible hot meals and an annual apprenticeship program that will create career pathways in the culinary arts, hospitality and retail operations.

“What we’re after is food sovereignty: a community’s right to define its own food system, improve its own health, and build its own economy.”

We spoke with The Community Grocer co-founder Eli Moraru about the organization’s big plans and how it hopes this pilot program will inspire similar efforts across the country.

Why did you choose to apply for KCC?

When Knight announced the Cities Challenge in Philadelphia, the fit was obvious. Knight is looking for community-rooted ideas that expand economic mobility and leave something lasting. We’re training the next generation of culinary and hospitality professionals two blocks from where they grew up, led by lifelong residents who are experts in their fields. Apprentices can see a future for themselves in their own neighborhood’s economy.

The timing works too. The building is finished, the team is hired and we’re already serving hundreds of meals a week before the doors officially open. A one-year grant lets us run the apprenticeship at full scale and document it carefully enough that another city could pick it up.

Tell us a bit more about the problem(s) your project is attempting to solve within your community.

There’s one problem showing up in three ways: food apartheid, the health outcomes that follow from it and the economic exclusion that keeps people stuck.

In 2024, we surveyed about 200 of our immediate neighbors and published the findings in two peer-reviewed journals. Roughly a third live below the Federal Poverty Level. About half participate in SNAP, and still more than half are food insecure. More than half live with a diet-related condition like hypertension or Type 2 diabetes. Citywide, roughly 600,000 Philadelphians are food insecure, and new SNAP work requirements could push up to 45,000 more off benefits. SNAP on its own was never going to sustain a family, a store or a neighborhood.

So we work on all three at once: a store with food that’s actually ready to eat, more purchasing power through medically supportive grocery stipends with health partners and real careers through the apprenticeship.

What is an aspect of your work that you’re most proud of?

That our neighbors lead it. We didn’t open the doors and then ask what people wanted.

Ms. Nikki and her sons have been here since day one.  Power of Paint’s after-school kids created our mural for our building. Ms. Lisa supported the architectural design of our building.

This month we’re promoting a former pre-apprentice and neighbor into a new Shift Lead role and bringing on neighbors as Assistant Managers. Those five hires show the apprentices coming up behind them that the pipeline is real. What we’re after is food sovereignty: a community’s right to define its own food system, improve its own health and build its own economy.

In your own words, what is the one question your project is trying to answer?

How do we align systems with the intention to build stronger, healthier communities?

Learn more about the recipients of the Knight Cities Challenge and how they’re impacting communities across Knight cities.