A Black-owned urban farm cooperative has opened a full grocery store in Birmingham's Fountain Heights neighborhood — the first such retail food outlet the community has had in nearly 70 years. Fountain Heights Farms Cooperative (FHFC) debuted We All Eat Market on Nov. 7 inside Heart of the Farm, a new market and community kitchen anchored in the historic district.
The opening marks a significant milestone for food-access policy advocates tracking urban grocery deserts across the South. Fountain Heights has been without a neighborhood grocer since the late 1950s, leaving more than 3,000 residents dependent on transportation to purchase fresh food. Birmingham City Council unanimously approved a $150,000 municipal agreement with FHFC in 2025 to support the project's development — an increasingly common model in which municipalities co-invest with community operators to close food-access gaps that private retail has not filled.
From Garden Plots to Retail
FHFC, co-founded in 2016 by M. Dominique Villanueva and Christopher Gooden, has grown from a single garden into a network of 16 farm plots supplying locally grown produce directly to the new market. The cooperative's We All Eat Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program was the first in Alabama to accept EBT payments and participate in the Double Bucks incentive program, which matches SNAP benefits to increase purchasing power for low-income households. The market now extends that model into a brick-and-mortar retail format, allowing a greater share of neighborhood spending to remain local.
"For almost 70 years, families in Fountain Heights have had to leave their own neighborhood just to buy groceries, and every dollar they spent left with them," said M. Dominique Villanueva, co-founder of Fountain Heights Farms Cooperative. "Our communities don't have to wait for someone else to decide what we eat or where we can buy it. We can grow it, sell it and own it."
Workforce and Kitchen Access
Beyond the retail floor, the Heart of the Farm facility integrates a commercial community kitchen available at affordable rates to local food entrepreneurs — a secondary economic lever that mirrors strategies seen in other urban food-hub developments. FHFC is prioritizing local hiring, staffing the store with Fountain Heights residents. Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin called the market "an investment in Fountain Heights residents, neighborhood revitalization, and the kind of community we want to build."
The timing carries added significance: grocery prices nationally have remained elevated following the post-pandemic inflationary cycle, and ongoing uncertainty around federal SNAP program funding has deepened food insecurity in lower-income urban communities. For operators, retailers, and foodservice supply-chain participants, the FHFC model illustrates how cooperative structures paired with municipal support can activate underserved retail locations that traditional grocery chains have historically bypassed.
The We All Eat Market launch is consistent with a broader trend in urban food access covered by Food & Beverage Magazine, which has tracked the intersection of cooperative farming, CSA expansion, and community retail investment. For more on food-access investment trends shaping the grocery sector, see our coverage of grocery retail and food access and cooperative and independent food operators.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
