Food co-op may expand Downtown store plans meeting Tuesday

Posted Feb 25, 2007

By Matt Fredmonsky
Record-Courier staff writer

A food cooperative in downtown Kent could be expanding soon to offer a wider selection to downtown employees and residents.

The Kent Natural Foods cooperative is holding a meeting for employees and members Tuesday night at the store, 151 E. Main St., to discuss the needs of the community and a possible increase in the store’s retail space.

Cindy Bissell, the store’s co-manager, said the cooperative is working on business proposals so it can apply for grants with the city of Kent and the state to help pay for some of the work.

“One of the things we’d like to have is start with a juice bar and then maybe expand to a deli,” Bissell said.

Right now the store is looking to remodel with the possibility of augmenting its existing products. Bissell said their first priority is to complete the grant proposals, re-work the store’s downtown facade and then begin remodeling the interior retail space.

At Tuesday’s meeting, employees and co-op members will plan a public meeting to talk about opening out the store. The next meeting will likely be a “community dinner” atmosphere held at The Kent Stage, Bissell said.

“We want to inquire of the community what they would like to see in a grocery store and natural food store downtown,” she said.

The natural food cooperative is working with local design architect Rick Hawksley on the business proposals and architectural concepts. The eventual expansion could be at the back of the store or into a neighboring store front.

On Friday, the city of Kent lost its last full-service grocery store when the locally-owned Giant Eagle closed its doors.

Kent City Councilman Wayne Wilson, whose ward lost two grocery chains in the last two years, said the possible expansion of Kent Natural Foods is good news.

“It doesn’t solve the need for a grocery store down here,” he said, referring to the city’s South-End neighborhoods. “We have a lot of people here who walk who couldn’t get to Kent Natural Foods if they wanted to.”

The Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority does have a route which stops at Tower 43, along South Water Street in Ward 2, and stops at downtown Kent on its way to East Main Street. The fare is $1 for the general public, according to PARTA’s Web site, www.partaonline.org.

Bissell said Kent Natural Foods’ future expansion could also create some job opportunities.

“We already do quite a bit of business with downtown employees,” she said. “We’re pretty much a full-service grocery. And while we do focus on natural foods, we do provide almost everything you can find in a regular grocery store.”

Press Release

Posted Aug 25, 2006

Rick Hawksley, Architect, has recently announced that his Kent based firm, DESIGN WITH A VISION, has recently expanded operations. Until recently, Mr. Hawksley has been affiliated with Fuller Design Group on a part time basis and now is independent.

DESIGN WITH A VISION has as its goal the provision of architectural, master planning and ecological transportation design services that will help our region transition to a sustainable pattern of settlement. He is especially interested in working on in-town, mixed use and residential infill development, pedestrian oriented neighborhood design, downtown improvement planning, existing buildings and houses of prayer.

For more 25 years Mr. Hawksley has been involved with a wide variety of historic preservation, town planning, land conservation and transportation planning projects that have helped to show the way to a more ecologically responsible future. In regards to the Vision behind Design With A Vision, Mr. Hawksley said recently that, “In this new century we have the opportunity to recreate the way we relate to each other and the land that the Good Lord has given us. The key is for us to understand that the forces of sin, greed and negativism drive us apart and that we must conceive a future that encourages self-sacrifice, is driven by humility about our own knowledge and abilities, and seeks peace and justice between people and with all of creation.”

Mr. Hawksley has long been an advocate for pedestrians, bicycles and transit. He has criticized the unthinking subsidization of the automobile by poor planning and public policy and has offered the historic compact downtown of towns such as Kent as a picture of how we can take responsibility for a prosperous future in the face of global warming. He and his wife Joan Inderhees, who renovated a Greek Revival house in downtown Kent, have walked to work for nearly 20 years and have been intimately involved in advocating a convivial future. They worked hard with Fritz Seefeldt at establishing the Haymaker Farm Market aiming to show how rural and urban populations can interact socially and economically. They have also advocated for additional bicycle facilities and safety.

Mr. Hawksley formerly served as board president of Portage Area Regional Transportation Authority, Co-founded PLACE, and is a founding board member of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy. He formerly was an editorial writer for the Record Courier, and presently is a weekly radio commentator on WCRF 103.3 FM in Cleveland He was elected to his second term as an at-large member of the Kent City Council in the fall of 2005.

Mr. Hawksley has recently written, “we all think that somehow our way of looking at the world is the right one, that if our plan or purposes were adopted, we would all live happily ever after.” The reality is, that we have many competing interests in the world, and finding peace, with our neighbors near and our enemies afar, requires that we diligently work to find a common ground, and work hard to take good care of it.”