College Park residents, UMD students support campaign for city Trader Joe’s

Customers shop at the Trader Joe’s location in Silver Spring. Students at this university want to see the popular grocery chain open in College Park.

A lack of grocery store options in the area has been frustrating students and local residents, prompting them to request a Trader Joe’s grocery store in College Park.

University Park resident Beth Domingo created the Facebook page “College Park Wants Trader Joe’s,” which garnered more than 600 likes and more than 5,000 page views from students and community members.

“I had heard that Trader Joe’s is very responsive to feedback,” said Domingo, a 1984 university alumna. “I’m like their No. 1 fan. … It just seems like the perfect time.”

Local demand influenced the building of the Silver Spring Trader Joe’s, Domingo said, which inspired her to create the Facebook page and encourage people to fill out a location request form on the Trader Joe’s website.

Annie Rice, a sophomore environmental science and policy major, said she saw the link on the Facebook page and requested a Trader Joe’s in College Park through the form.

“I just think it makes a lot of sense,” the environmental science and technology major said. “One, we don’t have a grocery store. Two, everyone loves Trader Joe’s.”

Although construction began for the Whole Foods in Riverdale Park, Rice said Trader Joe’s prices are less expensive and a College Park location would be more convenient.

Sophomore Katarina Pisini said a Trader Joe’s could provide better food for her complicated diet. She adheres to a gluten- and dairy-free, low-sodium and low-sugar diet for medical reasons and said the store successfully avoids cross-contamination, which she worries about in other grocery stores.

“Trader Joe’s offers a lot of different options that are more exciting,” the history and secondary education major said. “[Trader Joe’s] allows us to eat foods that we wouldn’t regularly be able to eat.”

The company doesn’t have any plans for expansion in the College Park area but said its request form is the best method for change, Trader Joe’s spokeswoman Rachel Broderick wrote in an email.

“We are willing to consider any and all great neighborhoods,” Broderick wrote in an email.

The U.S. Agriculture Department classifies College Park as a food desert, a term used for urban neighborhoods or rural towns that don’t have access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.

District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn said any grocery store within walking distance could improve the area by allowing students without cars to get groceries.

Wojahn said it could be difficult to have another grocery store in the area with the Riverdale Park Whole Foods currently under construction. However, with more student housing on the way, such as the Landmark apartment complex and Terrapin Row, the demand for a grocery store could increase, he said.

New York native Ariel Cohen, a senior history major, said she doesn’t know how to drive, so getting to a grocery store to get kosher food is a challenge.

“As a student who keeps kosher, Giant doesn’t sell cheese or meat or a lot of different foods that are part of your diet,” Cohen said.

Though she said Trader Joe’s doesn’t always have a lot of kosher meat and cheese products, their products tend to be labeled as kosher more frequently than other grocery store products.

No matter what people’s diets are, Domingo said Trader Joe’s would help the community in many ways.

“Why is there not a decent grocery store in College Park?” she said. “I just think that [Trader Joe’s] offer[s] a really wonderful alternative to the standard fare. … Their prices are right.”