Mariposa Food Co-op celebrated the groundbreaking for its new, expanded location—a former Greek Revival bank building on the 4800 block of Baltimore Avenue on Monday, July 27.  For almost forty years, Mariposa has been providing members with access to healthy, locally-grown, and sustainably produced food. They have grown from a buying club with a few dozen members to a full-service store with over 700 member households.

The Community Design Collaborative completed a conceptual design for the relocation and expansion of Mariposa in spring 2010 with a multi-disciplinary, multi-talented project team : Re:Vision Architecture, Larsen and Landis, Thomas Monari, PE, John Colarelli, PE, Advanced Foodservice Solutions, and Gardner/Fox Associates.

Mariposa immediately got busy raising funds for the project. Fundraising hit the 90% mark recently. With only $25,000 more to go, the co-op is on track to start construction at the end of this month and open the new store this October.

In his invite, Peter Sachs Collopy, the Convener for the Mariposa Food Co-op Board of Delegates, said, “Just two years ago it was only a dream to open a new store, five times the size of our current space. Now it's becoming a reality, thanks to a combination of large loans and grants and a considerable number of grassroots sources.”