This is an inspiring story of a young man working for community food security. Although his tools of choice are a cash register and dolly (which, as you'll see, he still needs to master) instead of a spade and wheelbarrow, his goals are very much in line with ours: bringing the food system back in to the hands of local people.

His effort comes at a time of historic consolidation in the grocery sector, with more and more small markets being either bought up or closed down by larger, more powerful national and global chains. According to US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, the nationwide share of sales for the four largest US food retailers grew by more than 80% from 1992 to 1998.