America’s first non-profit grocery store has survived a year of struggling to adapt to serve affordable, healthy foods in what was once a food desert in the city of Chester, just miles outside of Philadelphia.

Fare & Square opened last October in a city where nearly one in three residents live below the federal poverty line. For more than a decade, no supermarket had attempted to launch in the city. More than 44 percent of residents are food insecure, meaning that families have reported, at some point, reducing the amount, quality or variation of their diet due to lack of access or financial resources, according to a survey by Philadelphia’s food bank, Philabundance. In the same survey half of Chester families reported that it was too far to travel to buy nutritious food.

Despite the demand for access to healthy food, the non-profit market has had its share of challenges, but remains open due, in part, to support from Philabundance. In an interview with Cassie Owens of Next City, the market’s management reported that it initially struggled to attract shoppers last year and has had to adapt to find the foods the community wanted at the price they were willing to pay.  

While cities have incentived profit-driven grocers to come to areas of food desserts by partially funding development, there has never been a non-profit supermarket. Fare & Square is the first model that puts profits back into the store, with any extra money going towards programming like health education. If Fare & Square can stay afloat, it might offer a model for food security non-profits across the country.