Mayor Taveras Celebrates Grand Opening of Fertile Underground Grocery in West End

Last weekend, Mayor Taveras joined neighbors from the Federal Hill and West End neighborhoods at the Grand Opening Celebration of Fertile Underground Grocery at 1577 Westminster Street. Fertile Underground, a group of friends who ran a neighborhood garden in South Providence, partnered last year with West Broadway Neighborhood Association (WBNA) to open a natural grocery store in an area that had limited access to fresh foods, technically known as a "food desert." While there are number of local bodegas and corner stores with some fresh foods, the closest full-service grocery store to Fertile Underground is two miles away.

Fertile Underground opened in December 2011 and more recently expanded its hours and has also been expanding its offerings of largely local produce, dairy, meat, fish as well as other grocery staples. The grocery operates as a worker-run cooperative with ten employees as well as volunteers who receive food credit for their volunteer time.

Fertile Underground recently received a $2,500 Dexter grant from the city to support the creation of an entirely public, free, common garden for the people of the West End, to be developed on the grounds of Dexter Park.

The Grand Opening celebration came just three days after Mayor Taveras participated in a meeting of the US Conference of Mayors Food Policy Task Force in Boston, where much of the discussion focused on increasing access to fresh and healthy foods in food deserts and in supporting local food producers to benefit public health, the local economy and the environment. "You all are doing precisely the work that Mayors around the country want to support," Mayor Taveras told the staff of Fertile Underground as he presented them with a citation on Sunday.