In this interview, I talk with Erin McClellan, founding member and Board Chair of Fertile Ground Food Cooperative. In response to a lack of healthy food in an African American community in Raleigh, North Carolina, Fertile Ground members have been working for almost a decade to open a community-owned grocery store with social justice values and economic justice as its guiding principles. Fertile Ground, expected to open in 2025, is a personal and political project for me. I was born and raised in Raleigh, my grandparents are founding and current board members, and I have been a member of Fertile Ground since its founding. First as a high school student and later as an undergraduate student in Durham, I knocked on doors and attended community meetings. Later still, as a PhD student during the COVID-19 pandemic, I served as a regular volunteer for Fertile Ground’s food distribution program. Throughout its...

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