When a Black-owned grocery store in Detroit faced financial trouble, Black women answered the call to help keep it going. The call went out for 100 Black women to walk into one grocery store, and on Saturday, October 10, 2026 they came with flyers.
The store is the Detroit People’s Food Co-op on Woodward Avenue in the city’s North End, a Black led grocery owned by the people who shop in it, and it was in trouble. Lanay Gilbert-Williams, president of the co-op board, had projected $4 million in annual sales, roughly $80,000 a week. Actual sales were closer to $3 million. The co-op asked its neighbors for two things: 500 new owners at $200 each for a lifetime share, and $10 more than usual in the basket.
What arrived was bigger than the ask. A GoFundMe set up to steady the shelves raised $34,900 against a $20,000 goal. Black Leaders Detroit wrote a check for $25,000, the largest grant in that organization’s history, and its chief executive, Dwan Dandridge, said he believes everyone should have access to fresh food, so it was a no-brainer.
“Where they’re showing up with 100 people at a time, they’re creating flyers,” Gilbert-Williams said. “It’s been beyond phenomenal.” She said the store can stock and hold back stock again and continue to meet the community’s needs.
Torie Anderson-Lloyd, founder of BLK GRL Conglomerate, was one of the organizers. “One thing that the city of Detroit has taught me in my 41 years of living here is that we take care of each other,” she said. “And this, for me, is just proof of that.”
Watanna Lowry drove in from Clinton Township. She had not heard of the store until the call reached her. “I didn’t know anything about this place until I saw it on Facebook,” she said. “They wanted 100 Black women to come here and support.”
The co-op opened in 2024 and is owned by its members, anyone 21 or older who buys a $200 equity share. Gilbert-Williams has made the ownership the whole point. “Most grocery stores here in Detroit aren’t owned by Detroiters or people who live in Detroit,” she said, and the money a store makes is money its owners get to decide how to circulate.
The trouble was ordinary and it is not finished. Wildfires and a run of 90 degree weather cut into traffic, and Gilbert-Williams described what follows as a domino effect: a low week means less to spend on inventory the next week. The membership drive is still 500 owners short of where she wants it, and the share price is still $200.
