FARMER CITY, Ill. – Farmer City, population 1,828, in DeWitt County rests between Bloomington and Champaign, roughly 27 miles from each city. Unfortunately, there are no grocery stores in the city. Instead, residents have to rely on gas stations, restaurants or convenient stores as their grocery options.

Farmer City has been without a grocery for several years. While driving 30 minutes to the nearest city might not be so bad for some families, it can be an impossible task for others, and when they can’t make it, the remaining options can be a bit stale.

This may all change. Farmer City’s Steering Committee member Laura Enger is working on bringing a new co-op store creation to the area. Enger’s 40-member group calls themselves Farmer City Forward.

Farmer City may not have stores, but they are prepared to stock them in the future. According to Enger, Farmer City is full of local producers and each year it’s home to a successful farmers market. So, Enger has partnered with a group (Rural Fresh Markets) that has helped other small towns in similar situations. Dozens of residents, both producers and consumers, have come to the steering committee’s community meetings and voiced their support for the project.

“Once a town loses its grocery store, the heart of it sort of dies,” said Enger, who has lived in Farmer City most of her life. “Right now, the shopping is really just Dollar General, and it’s not a Dollar General Market.”

Residents would own the store themselves, while local producers would sell their products directly to consumers, Enger said.

“I love going to farmers markets in the summer, but why can’t we do that all year?” she said. “Especially right here, with there being so many producers of all kinds of things.”

Steering committee members have already had conversations with local producers of products like beef, lamb, chicken, eggs, milk, cheese and quail. There’s even someone who raises bison. The fresh herbs and vegetables, she said, could be provided in-season.

There were 504 farms in DeWitt County in 2017, which account for 1 percent of Illinois’ agriculture sales, according to the USDA.

David Johnston, longtime Farmer City resident, said he remembers when the town had its own grocery story. He even worked in it as a teenager. Now, all these years later, he has to shop out of town just to fill his fridge. He says it’s easy for him since he works out of the area, but his concern is the people who can’t make it out.

“Especially for the older people in the community who may have trouble traveling to Champaign or Urbana to get real groceries, good meat and good produce. It would be a boon for them,” Johnston said.

Enger has close to 300 members on the Cooperative Food Store Facebook group, but that’s not even half of the town. She says right now the top priority is getting more supporters and finding a building, adding that the group cannot finalize a budget until they find a proper space.

“We’re looking for the proper square footage, with the right size for a deli or a butcher shop combination,” she said.

Sean Park and Kristin Terry, both with the Illinois Cooperative Development Center, are assisting with the project. The two have helped set up cooperative grocery stores in Mt. Pulaski and Winchester. A meeting was held recently at Blue Ridge High School to discuss the project for Farmer City.

Park said that he’s impressed by Farmer City’s support for the project, adding that if the cooperative is community-owned, then there’s a greater chance it will survive.

“A lot of people have skin in the game,” Park said. “So, it’s not like somebody just opens a business, and it’s their business. We already have a steering committee consisting of both consumers and producers, with a good range of people.”

Park has helped many small towns open food cooperatives with local producers throughout the Midwest. In many other towns, community support typically comes from consumers. But in Farmer City, he said both groups are working together.

“We’re trying to change the town positively. We’re pretty excited about it. We’re trying to find the right space right now,” Enger said.

City Manager Sue McLaughlin said it’s been five or six years since Farmer City has had its own grocery.

“I think some people go to LeRoy, Mahomet or Champaign,” McLaughlin said. “The Dollar General has been pretty good. They have a pretty big produce stand and carry dairy and frozen meals and those kinds of things. I’m sure for weekly business, consumers go to some of those other communities.”

Some added things to consider, Enger said, are whether money from a tax-increment-financing district would be available, and will they get a lot of support from the community so they don’t have to get government-support money before they can create a budget.