Healthy, affordable groceries, with an emphasis on essentials, ingredients, and fresh produce for students.
After 4 years of visioning and planning, Anabel’s Grocery opened their student-run grocery store in Cornell’s Anabel Taylor Hall in May 2017.
“At a school with a high tuition/high aid model, it is especially difficult for low income students to bridge the financial gap of additional expenses like textbooks, supplies, rent, and food,” says Alexandra Donovan, Project Coordinator. “Food is one of those things that students have the most control over, and is therefore one of the first budget cuts they make.”
We went through and considered a lot of solutions, and we finally landed on opening a student-run grocery store.
“We didn’t start off saying ‘let’s open a store,’” explains Anabel’s Grocery Director, Kerry Mullins. “A group of students recognized that their peers were experiencing food insecurity on campus. We went through and considered a lot of solutions, and we finally landed on opening a student-run grocery store.”
Anabel’s seeks to provide healthy, affordable groceries, with an emphasis on essentials, ingredients, and fresh produce. The store also offers healthy grab-and-go items like Chobani yogurts, healthy drinks, trail mix, and granola bars. The store will be responsive to student needs, adapting to feedback and demand, as traffic to the store increases and feedback starts coming in.
