BIRMINGHAM — Fountain Heights has a grocery store again.
Fountain Heights Farms Cooperative opened We All Eat Market on Saturday inside Heart of the Farm, its new market and community kitchen at 1201 16th St. N. It is the first grocery store in the historic Fountain Heights neighborhood in nearly 70 years.
“For almost 70 years, families in Fountain Heights have had to leave their own neighborhood just to buy groceries, and every dollar they spent left with them,” said M. Dominique Villanueva, co-founder of the cooperative. “The We All Eat Market changes that. Our communities don’t have to wait for someone else to decide what we eat or where we can buy it. We can grow it, sell it and own it, and this market is proof of that.”
The cooperative, founded in 2016 by Villanueva and Christopher Gooden, has grown from a single garden into 16 farm plots. Much of what the market sells is grown just down the street.
Heart of the Farm was designed to serve more than 3,000 residents in an area with limited access to fresh, affordable food. The cooperative’s We All Eat Community Supported Agriculture program was the first in Alabama to accept EBT and participate in the Double Up Food Bucks program.
In 2025, the Birmingham City Council unanimously approved a $150,000 agreement with the cooperative to support the project.
The cooperative is hiring neighbors to run the store, and the community kitchen offers local food entrepreneurs affordable commercial kitchen space.
“Access to fresh, healthy food shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin. “We All Eat Market is more than a new grocery store; it’s an investment in Fountain Heights residents, neighborhood revitalization, and the kind of community we want to build.”
The market is open Tuesday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is closed Monday.