Community-Owned, Community-Saved: Daily Groceries Co-op Stands Resilient

Daily Groceries Co-op has been an Athens institution since 1992, but earlier this year, the community nearly lost it for good.

Unlike a chain grocery store, a co-op is owned by the people who shop there. Members buy in, have a say in how the store is run, and any profits go back into the business rather than to outside shareholders.

It’s a model built on local sourcing and community ownership, and it fights to keep food systems local, independent and sustainable. In this report, we take a look inside Athens’ only grocery co-op as it looks to reclaim its place on Prince Avenue.

Reilly O’Neill is a fourth-year journalism and finance major at the University of Georgia.