Joe McNamee: Cork's Glen Market aims to grow a sustainable and life-affirming food culture

The Glen Market offers a range of larder staples and redistributed surplus food, but what makes it unique, in an Irish context, and possibly even globally, is that the fresh produce comes from the community garden

The Glen Market, Cork’s first social supermarket, spearheaded by Health Action Zone community health worker Barry Hickey, who once led the community garden, and with additional support from the HSE and its Health Action Zone initiative.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan to open five social supermarkets in the Big Apple has attracted global attention, seen by certain more hysterical commentators as the first shots of a planned communist takeover of the entire US.

Sited in low-income areas, and ‘food deserts’ where there is little or no retail access to fresh, nutritional produce, and backed by a budget of $70m, they will stock core larder staples and fresh produce, along with meat, seafood, dairy, and eggs. With a 30% discount on regular market prices, they will benefit those struggling most with the huge rise in food prices since the pandemic, a worldwide phenomenon.