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Thousands of people in Passaic affected by food shortages receive food at a food distribution event
Thousands of food insecure people in Passaic received fresh produce and groceries during a food distribution event on August 26, 2020.
Amy Newman, North Jersey
PATERSON – Shana Manradge could have given up on her dream last year when city health officials, citing licensing issues, shut down the fresh produce store she operated online from her Paterson home.
But Manradge was more resilient.
City officials said she would have to open a traditional store to get a retail license to sell food.
And that’s exactly what Manradge did. After raising funds and looking for a location, Manradge opened A Better Market on Saturday at 215 Rosa Parks Boulevard in Paterson’s 4th Ward. The store specializes in selling food from black-owned farms and businesses at affordable prices.
The story continues below the photo gallery.
Manradge said she did not overcome the obstacles alone.
“The community has been with me on this whole journey,” she said, sitting at a table by the window in her new store. “They’ve been through the ups and downs.”
Manradge’s goal is to change the way people think about what they eat and what city dwellers “deserve.” She said she has been trying to improve food delivery to cities, with produce that is fresher, healthier and cheaper, and with fewer middlemen between farms and her customers’ dinner tables.
For Manradge, it was poetic that she found a store on Rosa Parks Boulevard, in the heart of the 4th district, where she grew up.
What strikes visitors when they enter the 1,200-square-foot store are the wide, open spaces and large windows that let in plenty of sunlight. This design is no accident. She said it’s a rejection of the notion that the neighborhood corner store has to be crammed with “dusty groceries in narrow aisles.”
The open space also offers the opportunity to hold community meetings and courses.
The new store will offer the same products their existing customers have been buying: food from black-owned farms, including meat and day-old eggs from Smith Poultry in South Jersey and produce from Seventh Heaven Farms in Warren County.
“I am extremely loyal,” Manradge said of her business relationships.
Her non-perishable products are displayed on natural wood shelves that she and her husband built themselves—yes, carpentry is one of her skills. She also recreated a raised bed—a nod to the freshness of her food—where she stores fresh produce from farms and the community garden across the street.
“I want to work with people who have the same vision of improving the community and making sure we get what we deserve,” she said of the community garden.
Relationship between health and nutrition
Manradge, who has worked in the medical field for 30 years, has long known about the connection between health and nutrition. From the garage of her home near Eastside Park, she began making weekly trips to farms to buy eggs, meat and fruits and vegetables for about 25 friends and family in the area.
But the same day that Paterson Press published an article about A Better Market, the city’s health department ordered Manradge’s closure. Health Commissioner Paul Persaud said the reporting had nothing to do with the subpoena. Rather, it was due to an anonymous complaint, he said.
“But we’ll never know,” Manradge said, smiling.
Persaud said she needed a food retail license, but to get one she needed a storefront. Looking back, however, Manradge admits there was one good thing about the debacle. It forced her out of her comfort zone.
“I was very good at working from home – I would probably still do that today,” she said. “But that gave me time to reinvent myself.”
The Brewing Corner
At the back of her shop is a small display case that Manradge calls the “brewing corner,” where she sells homemade tinctures and homeopathic remedies such as vanilla extract, magnesium oil, which can be used as a pain reliever, turmeric honey soap, and rosemary and clove oil for hair growth.
The city shutdown also made her realize how much support she has received from Paterson residents and others outside the city limits, such as Sal LaRosa, the owner of LaNeve’s in Haledon, who lent her his banquet hall for one of her fundraisers last October.
Those friendships have come in handy over the past year, which has been filled with fundraisers and the search for commercial space. It hasn’t been easy. Manradge even briefly considered opening a shop in a neighboring town to save costs and avoid Paterson’s regulations on things like parking.
Although she has her sights set on expanding to other locations—Newark is tempting for her—she remembered a promise.
“It was non-negotiable that my first store was in Paterson,” she said.
Community garden opposite
Manradge recently visited the community garden across the street from her store. Deacon Willie Davis was sitting in the shade. He told Paterson Press that before he planted his garden 10 years ago, there was a building there that housed a liquor store.
Davis said he sees Manradge’s mission as similar to his own. It’s partly about healthy food — “without the bad stuff,” he said, meaning pesticides and other chemicals. But it’s also about working together to strengthen the community.
“What she does and what I do is basically the same thing,” Davis said.
“This is just the beginning,” he said.
