With Whole Foods poised to replace the former Hi-lo Foods in Jamaica Plain, Jamey Lionette argues that all of the organic supermarket’s offerings can be obtained at locally owned JP markets and bodegas.
“I guarantee JP has more [Community Shared Agriculture], more community direct buying from farmers than other neighborhoods,” said the JP resident who runs City Growers urban farm based in Dorchester. “We have two City Feed [markets], Harvest [market] and, for six months, two farmers markets.”
And now Lionette is helping Plaza Meat Market near Egleston Square offer something not even Whole Foods can: local pork butchered at the JP bodega every other Friday. In fact Lionette — who also bought whole pigs from Adams Farm in Athol when he ran the defunct Lionette’s Market in the South End — believes nobody else in Boston offers local pork.
“When you buy a whole animal and break it down yourself, you can sell it at prices affordable to most people in the neighborhood,” Lionette said. “Some people can afford the shoulder and feet and other people can afford the loins and chops.”
Plaza will sell City Growers’ produce and is looking to expand its organic offerings.
The endeavor, however, is only partly an anti-gentrification statement since Lionette pitched Plaza owner, Harry Perez, on the idea well before Whole Foods announced its Hi-Lo acquisition in January. But Egleston Square Main Streets Director, Betsy Cowan, who promotes the pork project, said gentrification is preventable.
