AICHO's purchase of the former 4th Street Market won't just restore food to a "food desert" in one of Duluth's poorest neighborhoods.
When it opens, perhaps next summer, it will provide four units of housing, an indigenous food market (perhaps the first in the state), a coffee shop, deli, gift shop and house a new coffee roasting business.
The American Indian Community Housing Organization has been providing direct services like a domestic violence shelter and permanent supportive housing for 25 years now. But now they're eyeing the next step in the process: the economic development that can change their community permanently - and for the better.
AICHO is having an open house event November 3rd at the Market; community members are encouraged to share their vision of what the space might eventually be.