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By Food Justice Collective
The Food Justice Collective is proud to announce a major victory for our City: the full adoption of five transformative resolutions by the Common Council, policies that were not only influenced by, but directly born out of, community organizing, strategy, and leadership led by the Collective. This win did not happen overnight.
In June 2025, residents of Metcalfe Park learned online that their only grocery store and pharmacy would be closing in less than 30 days. What followed was not silence. It was a movement.
In July 2025, Metcalfe Park Community Bridges convened an emergency town hall where over 100 community members, neighboring communities, farmers, entrepreneurs, grocery store owners, institutions, and elected officials came together to respond. We left that room with clarity and commitment: Kroger would not leave our community quietly.
On July 18th, 2025, the final day of Pick ‘n Save operating the North 35th Street store, we organized a rally and march declaring just that. We made a promise: not only would we fight for accountability, but we would also build solutions.
Out of that moment, the Food Justice Collective was formed, a network of community members, organizations, elected officials, and institutions working together through four core strategies: Policy & Zoning, Community-Led Solutions/Mutual Aid, Co-Op & Community-Owned Grocery Development, and Political Struggle.
Over the past 10 months, through deep organizing and coordinated action, to name a few, we have:
- Launched a Community-Powered Fridge Network (5) across Milwaukee’s North Side.
- Established the Metcalfe Park People’s Pantry, serving hundreds of families with dignity and consistency monthly.
- Successfully advocated for county-level policy declaring food apartheid a public health crisis and securing $150,000 in immediate food support.
- Conducted extensive canvassing, community assessments, and public education campaigns to document lived experiences and demand systemic change.
- Held ongoing community conversations that shaped both narrative and policy direction.
We refused to let the story end when the store closed. We organized, we built, and we advanced a vision rooted in community control. Now, just 10 months later, that vision has translated into policy at the city level.
On Tuesday, April 21, 2026, key resolutions, developed through the work of the Food Justice Collective, were officially adopted:
- Declaring food apartheid a public health crisis at the city level.
- Allocating $2.8 million toward food and pharmacy access, including support for co-ops and community-owned markets.
- Establishing a 60-day notice requirement before grocery and pharmacy store closures.
- Directing the Department of City Development and the Milwaukee Health Department to coordinate long-term solutions.
This $2.8 million investment will support initiatives such as the Grocery Store Retention Fund and the Healthy Food Establishment Fund, critical steps toward stabilizing and rebuilding our local food system.
Let us be clear: this is a PEOPLES win.
This is what happens when those closest to the issue lead the solutions. But this is not the end. These resolutions are a starting point, not a finish line. As more stores across the City continue to close, our efforts will continue. The Food Justice Collective will continue to organize, monitor implementation, and ensure that these resources are deployed in ways that meet the real, material needs of our community. We will follow the resources. We will demand accountability, and we will continue building toward a future where our food systems are community-controlled, sustainable, and rooted in dignity.
We deserve fresh, affordable, quality access to food and medicine, without reliance on large chains that abandon us without warning. We are not waiting for change. We are building it together.
Signed,
The Food Justice Collective- a local network of residents, organizations, elected officials, food producers and more committed to building a just food ecosystem.
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