Donna Garnett isn’t waiting for a corporate savior to fix Denver’s food deserts.
That’s why she is leading a plan to open three locations of a new nonprofit grocery chain called FreshLo Market.
Garnett is the longtime leader of Montbello Organizing Committee, the community group that has been working for years to help address various issues in northeast Denver.
“It is a well-established fact that in Denver and across the country that large grocery chains are not willing or interested in coming into low-income communities, and they can't make the profit margin that they need,” Garnett said.
Garnett and MOC have been working for years to establish the FreshLo model, which is soon to open its first store in Montbello.
Now, with that initial mission almost accomplished, the nonprofit is unveiling plans to convert existing stores in Sun Valley and La Alma Lincoln Park into FreshLo locations.
Where will they open?
FreshLo’s first location will be in the FreshLo Hub, a mixed-use development run by Montbello Organizing Committee, opening later this spring.
Its second locations won’t be new developments — instead, they’ll convert two existing retail spaces. A FreshLo location will replace the Osage Cafe and Mercado, a cafe in Denver Housing Authority’s Central Office in La Alma Lincoln Park.
FreshLo will also replace Decatur Fresh, the grocery store in a Sun Valley community run by the housing authority.
Garnett said she also hopes to open a location at the Clayton Early Learning campus on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, but that is still in the exploratory phase.
She also said there’s an appetite across various communities across Denver metro and the state.
“I like to think of it as a movement to create locally owned grocery stores that are responsive to the people who live in a community,” she said. “And that's really a really important principle and value around this project.”
How can a nonprofit grocery store work?
Denver’s biggest grocery stores — King Soopers, Safeway, and Walmart — are for-profit enterprises.
Garnett said FreshLo will rely on grants and donations to subsidize the business and keep prices down. She expects 60 percent of revenue will come from product sales, with the other 40 percent coming from philanthropic giving.
“The products will be available at discounted prices of 15 to 30 percent,” she said.
Each of the stores will have a community benefits agreement outlining how it will serve the surrounding neighborhood, as well as a resident-led advisory committee.
The chain will be governed by a board that includes members from Montbello Organizing Committee, Denver Housing Authority, FLO Development Services and Clayton Early Learning.
Stores will be staffed by people from surrounding neighborhoods and will be paid living wages with benefits.
“I think that's a little different from your regular grocery stores,” Garnett said.
Garnett said they’re pulling inspiration from Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery chain in Boston that closed its doors in 2025. Daily Table’s former chief operating officer is consulting FreshLo as it prepares to open in spring.
