Prince George’s County Opens Grocery Store Inside Library
A free grocery store opened inside the Fairmount Heights Branch Library in Prince George’s County, giving approved residents a place to shop for meat, dairy, produce, juices and other staples. The Fairmount Five Market is open on a set schedule and serves households that applied in advance.
Fairmount Five Market
Jasmine Crowe-Houston, Goodr’s founder and CEO, said the market will serve more than 200 families each month. She also said, "This is a real grocery store," and added, "This is not something that’s just giving to people. We really want it to be dignity and treating people well."
Residents who were accepted receive a reusable grocery bag and can shop without questions asked, Crowe-Houston said. The store had already accepted nearly 200 households, and there was already a waiting list. On opening day, the selection included green peppers, apples, oranges, bananas and potatoes.
Prince George’s County Access
The Fairmount Five Market is a partnership between Prince George’s County and Goodr, an Atlanta-based company that has opened 34 similar stores across the country since 2021. It is the first Goodr location in the D.C. area and the first permanent Goodr store inside a library.
Prince George’s County Council member Shayla Adams-Stafford helped bring the store to the community. She said, "So many of our seniors were suffering in silence, not able to afford grocery store prices, but maybe they made a little bit too much to qualify for food programs," and added, "Having a program like this that allows them to come and shop with dignity, it really is going to make a big difference here."
Fairmount Heights is considered a food desert, and most of the households accepted so far are led by seniors. Families in Prince George’s County can register through District 5 or the library, and the store is funded through a county grant that will keep it stocked each week.
Dawn Moore at Opening
Maryland first lady Dawn Moore attended the opening on World Hunger Day. She said, "These are older communities, they are established communities, but they are deserving of all of the opportunities that every community throughout the state of Maryland can offer and have."
Krystal Oriadha, chair of the Prince George’s County Council, said a second free grocery store is set to open in District 7 soon. Moore also said Maryland’s Food is Medicine initiative includes a new Medically Tailored Meals program that launched this month and will provide nearly 1 million meals to more than 3,000 Marylanders.
