Need To Know
- Sunshine Division has opened a free Food Market at its new headquarters at 2121 NW Front Ave. in Portland, where visitors choose their own groceries at no cost.
- The choose-your-own model – which the nonprofit says its clients most requested – is built to feel like an ordinary, dignified shopping trip rather than a handout.
- Appointments are required and an ID is requested, but Sunshine Division says no one will be turned away for not having one.
Portland’s newest grocery store stocks fresh produce, meat, dairy and pantry staples – and charges nothing at the till.
The market, run by the nonprofit Sunshine Division, opened last month at the organization’s 30,000-square-foot headquarters near Portland’s Slabtown neighborhood and is going from strength to strength. Instead of handing out pre-packed boxes, it lets people walk the aisles and choose from fresh produce, dairy, proteins and pantry staples that fit their household’s needs, cultural preferences and tastes.
It is a model the nonprofit says the people it serves asked for…