More Than a Grocery Store

The decision comes down to financial sustainability. Despite efforts to grow sales and find a path forward, the gap between what it costs to operate a small neighborhood grocery store and the revenue it generates is too large for Matthew 25 to continue.

But the story of the Corner Store shouldn’t end with its closing. To understand what this place has meant, and what we are taking with us, we have to go back further.

From a neglected corner to a neighborhood grocery store

Matthew 25 purchased the building at 604 Ellis Boulevard NW in 2016. At the time, it was a neglected property on a corner that had become associated with high crime. We initially used the building as a food pantry while raising funds and developing plans for its future.

In April 2022, the Cultivate Hope Corner Store opened.

The idea was ambitious but simple: What if people in the neighborhood had a place within walking distance where they could buy fresh produce, meat, milk, eggs and other everyday groceries at reasonable prices?

Over time, that vision grew. The store offered a Free Produce Corner, accepted SNAP and later WIC, stocked locally grown food, offered Pay-it-Forward assistance and created Good Meals To Go, which were healthy meals prepared at Groundswell Cafe and priced between $5 and $6.

The impact can be seen in the numbers. In just the first nine months of 2026, the Corner Store provided more than $16,500 worth of produce at no cost and sold nearly 1,700 Good Meals To Go.

But the numbers tell only part of the story. Behind them are people, and their experiences taught us that “access to food” means much more than having food available.

More than a meal

An elderly couple in the Time Check neighborhood had difficulty getting to a grocery store and preparing meals at home. They had been relying on frozen TV dinners. They tried Meals on Wheels, but it didn’t feel like the right fit for them. A Meals on Wheels volunteer suggested Good Meals To Go. Since then, they have been coming to the Corner Store once a week for freshly prepared meals they can enjoy at home. It gives them something that is harder to put a price on: choice and dignity.

Another customer regularly purchases Good Meals To Go for her 90-year-old mother. Her mother has mobility issues and can no longer cook the way she once did, but she loves having different meals to choose from.

And one day, a woman purchased six Good Meals To Go for herself and her husband using her SNAP benefits. She explained that those six meals meant several nights of fresh, restaurant-prepared dinners they could afford.

These are small stories. But together they reveal something important. Food insecurity isn’t always an empty refrigerator. Sometimes it’s not having transportation to a supermarket. Sometimes it’s being 90 years old and no longer able to stand at a stove. Sometimes it’s having enough money for food, but not enough for the kinds of meals you would like to eat.

A place where people helped one another

Something else happened at the Corner Store that wasn’t part of a traditional grocery-store business model.

People looked out for each other.

One of our regular customers, Karl, works at a local food pantry that sometimes has extra bread. Week after week, he quietly brings totes of it to the Corner Store so we can share it with customers who need it. He doesn’t want recognition. He simply doesn’t want good food to go to waste when someone else can use it.

On another day, a man came into the store after being struck while riding his scooter. He had been trying to make his way to Groundswell Cafe but couldn’t continue because he was hurting and needed somewhere to sit and cool down. A staff member helped him get settled in the Hadley Hangout and planned to buy him something to eat and drink. There was no need. Another customer had already left $10 behind with instructions that it be used when someone else needed a meal.

That was the Corner Store at its best.

It wasn’t simply a transaction between a cashier and a customer. It was a place where one person’s generosity could reach someone they might never meet.

The difficult reality

Those stories make the decision to close harder, but they don’t change the financial reality.

Small grocery stores operate on thin margins. At the Corner Store, we were also intentionally trying to keep food affordable and serve a neighborhood where affordability itself is part of the challenge.

The very things that made the store important could not, by themselves, make the business model sustainable.

Closing the Corner Store doesn’t mean the need wasn’t real or the effort failed. It means we have learned more about the complexity of addressing food access and about the responsibility to make sure the ways we respond can be sustained.

What happens next

The Corner Store will remain open through December 18, and we hope our community will continue shopping with us and supporting our staff during these final months.

After that, the building isn’t going away—and neither is Matthew 25.

We will begin a thoughtful process of determining what comes next for the space. We want neighbors, partners and others who care about this community to be part of that conversation. We don’t yet know exactly what the answer will be. We do know that what we’ve learned at the Corner Store will inform it.

For nearly five years, this little store taught us that access to healthy food is about much more than groceries. It is about transportation and mobility. Affordability and independence. Choice and dignity. It is about knowing your neighbors and noticing when someone needs a hand.

And sometimes, it is as simple as leaving $10 behind for someone you will never meet.

The Corner Store may be closing.

What happened here, and what it taught us about caring for our neighbors, will continue.