The very first thing that happened to me when I walked in the door of Archwood Food Market was a hug from Angel Zimmerman. She welcomes everyone this way.
Zimmerman leads Archwood Foods and hosts a reduced-price produce market every second and fourth Sunday of the month in the basement of the Archwood United Church of Christ at 2800 Archwood Ave. in Cleveland.
The produce is set up along the back wall in cardboard cases, each labeled with the prices – 50 cent papayas, $1 for a pack of fresh dill. You just walk along the back wall and select your produce.
After I grabbed the last bit of dill, an elderly man walked up and looked at the empty case. “Someone took all the dill,” he said.
“That was me,” I confessed.
“It was a good ‘dill’, get it?” he said, and walked off to the next set of cases before I could react.
A decade of community connection
Archwood Foods began in 2015. Resident Dale Lindsey started the program after Aldi moved its Pearl Road location down to Steelyard, creating a food desert in the area, said Zimmerman. “If you know this neighborhood, you know there’s a lot of elderly people, there’s a lot of people with young children. They might not be able to drive cars. You expect them … to lug [groceries] back up a hill, or pay $5 to take two buses to go down [to Steelyard]?”
Zimmerman said the food desert in the neighborhood also eliminated social engagement for community members, especially seniors, and she hopes to provide that welcoming space at Archwood Foods’ market.
The majority of the food sold at the market comes from Sanson Produce on Cleveland’s East Side. It’s either donated by the company or purchased at a reduced price, said Zimmerman. The produce is paid for with small public and private grants, made most often by private donors or the church.
Proceeds from Archwood Foods’ sales go to keep the market up and running. Zimmerman uses leftover funds to provide a free home-cooked meal to anyone who comes in.
People from all walks of life come to Archwood Foods. When I visited, I saw well-known community advocates, local gardeners, young families and elderly residents from the neighborhood and beyond. They stopped in to shop or just have a meal and chat with other community members. No one is required to buy anything to get the meal.
‘You can’t fix things from the top down’
Though she works primarily with churches, Zimmerman herself is an atheist who believes in the power of people, not prayer, which she says motivates her to work to strengthen the community around her. “If you made an established relationship with your community, they got you.”
“All of us have something to contribute that improves our communities. And when you have strong communities, you have a strong city, state, country — you can’t fix things from the top down. And in the process, you become part of the community, the family, the support system.”
Zimmerman also cooks community meals for the Denison United Church of Christ at 9900 Denison Avenue. She makes extra money selling her own jams, pickles and baked goods. Donations and helping hands can be offered through Zimmerman’s Archwood Foods Facebook page.
