New Kansas City grocery store bringing natural & organic food to the urban core

Community Groceries, an urban grocery store and deli concept, is expanding again.

Owner Kortney Lee opened his first location, Crossroads Market at 640 E. 18th St., in March.

Now he is planning to open the 4,000-square-foot Troost Market at 3501 Troost Ave in summer 2022. Other targeted sites include the 12th Street and Indiana Avenue area for a November opening, and near 31st Street and Gillham Road for December. Lee also is looking in the Independence area.

He said the goal is to provide accessible and affordable natural and organic food to the urban core’s low-income areas — often described as food deserts.

“That’s why I named it Community Groceries — putting groceries back into the communities, places that you can walk to instead of the big box stores, a European model,” Lee said.

Customers also can sign up for one of its subscription programs. The LifeStyle Box Subscription starts at $99 a month for 60 servings of healthy snacks such as oatmeal, grass-fed beef jerky, and yogurt, and subscribers can stop in daily to pick up fresh fruits and select vegetables. The $149 a month subscription also gives them three different drinks a week, such as a gallon of local milk or locally-made kombucha. Other subscriptions are available, including one that offers yoga classes three days a week.

Lee also has a social media initiative, Snacking Well, on Instagram to encourage consumers to eat better.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture keeps a measure of food accessibility. Explore its map and see how Kansas City stacks up nationally here.

Charlie Lowe of Crossroads Real Estate Group handled the lease negotiations for the new Troost grocery store.

This story was originally published September 16, 2021 at 1:33 PM.