Greene Hill Food Co-Op Raising Money For New Home

CLINTON HILL, NY — The Greene Hill Food Co-Op could shut down unless they raise $30,000 by May so they can move to a new location after being forced out of their current Putnam Avenue building.

Organizers of the co-op took to IndieGoGo this week to raise the money to fund the move because their 18 Putnam Ave. storefront was sold earlier this year and the grocery store lost their lease, according to the fundraising page.

"If this fails we the co-op will have to close and a lot of work would have gone into this with no result," said Sarah Chinn, a member of the co-op who helped start the fundraiser campaign. "And if we succeed, we manage to save our co-op."

The campaign, which was first reported by the Brooklyn Reader, raised nearly $20,000 as of Thursday afternoon and is offering perks like yoga classes, buttons, museum passes and more.

Greene Hill Food Co-Op, which has been in the Putnam Avenue spot since 2011, found out in January that the landlord sold the building and they had to be out on May 1, Chinn said.

The store built up debt to buy new equipment and sales have been down while the costs to keep the doors open rose, so the board voted in February to close, according to the fundraiser.

Chinn and fellow member Lindsay Reichart banded together to come up with a plan for the fundraising push and found a new space a few blocks away near the Bed-Study border they could move into.

"It was kind of mixture of grief and stubbornness," said Chinn, who was an early member of the co-op. "I’m not yet ready to say we’re done, and if doesn’t work at least we’ll know we really tried."

The spot needs to put up three month's rent upfront for to lease their new space and the building needs some minor repairs to get up and running, Chinn said. If all goes well, the co-op expects to close their Putnam Avenue store in mid-April to start the move and reopen late-May early-July.

While the fundraiser hasn't been fully successful yet, it got to nearly 70 percent of the goal in a little over the week and Chinn's "cautiously optimistic" they'll raise the funds. Any extra the co-op plans to use to be new equipment for the spot.

The Greene Hill Food Co-op was in first in danger of closing in 2016 after their landlords notified them they would terminate the lease in order to sell the 19 Putnam Ave. building, DNAinfo reported. The members fought against it in court until the owners found a new buyer and were legally able to break the lease this year, Chinn said.

Image: John V. Santoro/Patch