Around the world, public grocery stores have operated for decades. In Mexico, a national network of stores serves rural and low-income communities. The United States’ Commissary system serves over 8 million military shoppers a year, lowering prices by more than 20%. In Greenland, a public grocery network reaches some of the most remote northern communities, keeping prices reasonable.
Food Secure Canada’s national campaign to put public and non-profit grocery models on the table.
Food prices have risen nearly 30% since 2019, while supermarket chain profits have more than doubled. A handful of corporate chains control most of the market. Public and non-profit grocery models offer a way to break that grip, connecting food produced in Canada directly to communities.
In Canada, public grocery stores have hit national headlines, yet there is still very little research or public knowledge of how these models could actually work here.
The Public Grocery Project brings together research, a national forum, and movement-building to expand the national dialogue and open up space for these ideas to be seriously considered. We’re looking at a range of public and non-profit models — public grocery stores, cooperatives, solidarity and non-profit food retail, and public distribution systems — to explore what could work here.
What we’re doing
Research: Developing a policy toolkit — including a report, a policy brief, and practical materials for policymakers, municipalities, and organizers — covering the models, costs, and benefits of public and non-profit grocery stores.
A national forum: Hosting Canada’s first-ever forum on public grocery stores, bringing together international practitioners, researchers, and Canadian civil society and government.
Movement building: Growing a national coalition and public campaign — including a nationwide survey — that puts public and non-profit grocery models firmly on the political agenda.
Help us build it
We’re an independent, people-powered organization raising $150,000 to fund the forum, the research, and the movement-building this project needs. Donate today and help put public and non-profit grocery models on the table.
What we’ve done so far
Video with The Breach: The Big Idea: Public Grocery Stores
Our Policy Manager partnered with The Breach on a video making the case for why we need public grocery stores in Canada.
CCPA analysis: How Public Grocery Stores Could Work in Canada · French version
Published with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Institut de recherche et d’informations socioéconomiques, this is the first analysis of the potential costs and savings of public grocery stores in Canada.
Webinar: Public Grocery Stores Webinar English version · French version
Co-hosted with Food Communities Network, our webinar on public grocery stores drew over 700 registrations.
Webinar: Alternatives to Corporate Supermarkets and Greedflation
A Food Secure Canada webinar looking at solidarity grocery stores and co-ops as community-owned alternatives to corporate supermarkets.
Our campaign in the news
The Tyee: A Bagful of Reasons to Create Public Grocers
CBC’s The Current: Can public grocery stores work in Canada?
CBC’s Cross Country Checkup: Are government-run grocery stores the fix for high prices?
CBC Ontario On the Go with Krissy Holmes: Public Grocery Stores
Do Not Pass Go (podcast): Can public grocery stores finally happen?
CBC Saskatoon, Blue Sky: What would help make groceries more affordable?
CTV National: What’s behind high grocery prices in Canada
Future of Good: Canada’s escalating food prices: the obvious solution and the systemic one
CHED Edmonton: Interview with Shaye Ganam
CBC: How public grocery stores could help lower food costs in cities like Toronto
QUB: Épiceries: vers une offre publique concurrentielle pour faire baisser les coûts?
CBC Ontario Today: Should the government get into the grocery game?
Toronto Star: Are public, city-run grocery stores feasible in Toronto?
24 Heures: Les Québécois ont faim: le gouvernement devrait-il implanter des épiceries publiques?
CBC Newfoundland: On the Go with Chrissy Holmes
Public Grocery Project Supporters
We want to thank all of the organizations who are helping to make this project a reality:
Alliance SAT, Concordia Food Coalition, Conseil Systeme Alimentaire Montreal, Equiterre, Fédération autonome de l’enseignement, Food Communities Network, Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon, Inter Pares, MAZON Canada, New Grocery Movement, People’s Food Institute, Public Service Alliance of Canada (Alliance de la Fonction publique du Canada), Small Planet Foundation, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines), and the many individual donors, supporters, and volunteers without whom we could not do this work.