Pop-up grocery store to bring affordable options to diverse community

A pop-up grocery store will bring inexpensive products to the public while helping reduce waste in the local landfill.

Fair Market, a reduced-price food store, and the Multi-Cultural Center at 515 N. Main Ave. are collaborating on the event, which could become a monthly offering. The first one is scheduled for 1 to 6 p.m. Feb. 16.

“I’m going to set my little Square register up, and we’ll offer what we have at the store on a smaller scale,” said owner Kristin Johnson. She started Fair Market in March 2021 on South Carolyn Avenue and moved to a larger location on 10th Street east of Sycamore Avenue over the weekend.

In addition to the pop-up store, the Multi-Cultural Center hopes to offer two other events Feb. 16. Kadyn Wittman, MCC’s director of development and marketing, is working with South Dakota Urban Indian Health to offer a COVID-19 vaccination clinic and a free movie night for families. That event is tentative based on issues surrounding the pandemic.

“I can’t say with 100 percent certainty today it will open, but our intention is to reach a multitude of individuals,” Wittman said.

Wittman suggested the pop-up grocery store to Johnson after hearing her speak last fall at a 1 Million Cups gathering. The entrepreneurial speaker series is a national program organized locally by Startup Sioux Falls.

Johnson talked about Fair Market and its goals, which are to bring affordable food to people and reduce waste in the landfill. Fair Market, like the pop-up store, is open to all community members.

“When I first met her at her 1 Million Cups talk, she had kept six semis of food out of the landfill,” Wittman said. “From a personal standpoint, I was so inspired by Kristin’s goal to keep perfectly good food from being thrown away.”

The Multi-Cultural Center’s mission is to provide experiences, services and programming for all Sioux Falls residents and to learn to celebrate and share in the community’s cultural diversity, Wittman said. The center is working to create connections through programming and other resources.

A pop-up grocery store will be a good way to draw people to the center, she said, and give them the chance to make a difference.

It also will help MCC’s clients, some of whom come from low-income backgrounds. Before joining MCC in August 2021, Wittman had worked at the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House for 18 months. Located just a few blocks from the Multi-Cultural Center, the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House is a nonprofit ecumenical ministry that provides daytime and overnight shelter and services for the homeless and those who are struggling financially.

“One of the absolutely best things is Kristin accepts SNAP benefits,” Wittman said. “We are located in (legislative) District 15, the most socioeconomic diverse district in the state outside the reservations. A lot of people rely on it. There are a lot that don’t accept SNAP for more high-end healthy foods, and she does.”

Fair Market also offers a variety of items that are necessities, like aluminum foil, but not covered by SNAP, Johnson said. With the recent closing of a Hy-Vee grocery store at 10th Street and Kiwanis Avenue, much discussion has been made on food deserts, she said. What people fail to realize is that a food desert is caused not only by a scarcity of stores in a location but also a lack of affordable options, Johnson said.

Johnson showed immediate enthusiasm when Wittman proposed the pop-up grocery store.

“She was really nervous to bring it up, but it just makes so much sense,” Johnson said. “I’m always up for trying something new.”

Fair Market now is on its seventh semi load of food that it has kept from the landfill, Johnson said.

“The fact that we’re not throwing tons away means we’re selling,” she said. “There’s nothing that just sits and sits.”

Having access to fresh and healthy shelf-stable food will encourage the Multi-Cultural Center’s clients and others to make their own meals from scratch, Wittman said.

“We want everyone to come and experience it,” she said. “It started as a way of serving our lower-income clients, but if anyone is interested or curious, we urge them to stop by.”

If the pop-up shop at the Multi-Cultural Center is successful, Johnson hopes it will become a monthly event. Other locations also are a possibility.