Community Corner

Help Save Cabbagetown's Beloved Little's Food Store

Fundraising campaign organized to help longtime grocery store and grill to stay open during building renovations.

As usual, there's plenty going on this weekend in and around our East Atlanta Patch.

Friday night, all are invited to join the Grant Park Neighborhood Association in raising a glass of good cheer in saying goodbye to the building that once housed Dottie's Food and Spirits and later Lenny’s Bar.

Also Friday is the 38th Annual Music of the Holidays with the Atlanta Young Singers, and there's always great laughs to be found at the Village Theatre, located at 349 Decatur Street.

And while you're wrapping up that last-minute Christmas shopping, you might want to pause and consider helping a longtime Cabbagetown mainstay that come the end of the month may be no longer.

As reported here last week, due to financial constraints, Little’s Food Store is scheduled to close at the end of the month. But maybe not as a fundraising campaign has been organized to help save the store.

Learn more about Little's in this video here or as store co-owner Brad Cunard explains here at the Indiegogo donation page:

Cabbagetown is a historic mill village neighborhood in Atlanta, GA. Little's Food Store is the last remaining neighborhood grocery store, still operating out of the same building since 1941. J.M. Little opened the store back in 1929, and serving as an essential part of the community, helping to feed families during hard times, and offering a warm meeting spot at all times. Leon Little took over for his dad in 1969 and ran the store during Cabbagetown's lowest points. After the cotton mill closed, Leon often extended credit to those he knew would never be able to pay him back and never let anyone leave hungry. Leon ran the store until his retirement in 2006 and the store briefly closed.

Nina and I moved to Cabbagetown in 2005 and settled into the quirky neighborhood and quickly fell in love with our neighbors and the area. In 2010, Little's historic building on Carroll Street became available, and Nina and I reopened the store. We have tried very hard to maintain the neighborhood general store feel and charm that the Little family built, offering fresh produce, grocery and convenience store items, and a cook to order burger grill. We run it as if our staff and customers are our family; many of our regulars visit once a day or more. Nina and I pledged to continue the Little's tradition; we will not let you leave hungry if you need something to eat

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Little's, Nina, and I need your help. The building needs many repairs that have gotten in the way of our day to day operation. Leon is working on repairing the building so we can stay, but we have had no choice but to announce that we would be closing at the end of December, informing our staff that they would be out of work two days before Christmas. We don't want to close. We need help from you to stay open while repairs are made and keep as many people working as possible. We need to secure licensing and cover other obligations for the upcoming year so we can achieve this goal. All funds donated will go toward these obligations. Any amount you give will help us stay open.

To show our appreciation for your donation, every $25 you give will be rewarded with our undying appreciation and a $5 Little's Food Store gift card. If for some reason we are not able to stay open we will replace the gift card with a donation to Zoo Atlanta, our wonderful neighbor in Grant Park. 

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This is a historic business in a historic building in a historic neighborhood. Atlanta doesn't have many of these left. I want my little girl Fiona to be able to walk down to Little's with her friends for an ice cream on a hot summer day just like so many other kids have done for years. Please help spread the word so this can happen. The building needs a lot of repairs, but we don't need a lot to stay open during the renovation process. $5000 to $20000 will go a long way toward our goal. Anything will be appreciated; any help you can give will be appreciated.

We are asking the world for your help and we know it. But we know you can help and we need all the help we can get. Please give if you can; if you can't give funds, please spread the word of our little store and our efforts to stay open. Please share this campaign on Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth. Please, please help in any way you can.

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts,

Nina, Brad, and Fiona


Check here for more updates on the effort to save Little’s Food Store.


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