Community and sustainability focused MARSH (Materializing & Activating Radical Social Habitus) Grocery and Diner will permanently close its doors on July 22. Founded by mother-daughter duo Beth and Esther Neff, MARSH was a hub for community gathering, climate education and locally sourced food for the Carondelet neighborhood.
In a statement, the MARSH board and staff said, “It is with heartfelt gratitude and sadness that we are announcing the closure of the MARSH Grocery and Diner… despite our best collective efforts, we are at a point where we are unable to financially sustain the MARSH enterprise.”
Prepared items, as well as garden-grown produce in the market, will go on clearance over the next two weeks, and the MARSH team will continue to serve food with their remaining ingredients in the diner until the closure.
Beth Neff said, “We set this up as a not-for-profit, knowing that it was not likely that it would be self-sustaining. And so we were reliant on a combination of foot traffic, external funding from grants and donations, and I feel like if any of those things don’t work out, then the whole thing doesn’t work out. So we’ve always been over-extended, our idea was too ambitious.”
MARSH’s parent organization, Spark for the Arts, Inc. will continue to conduct climate research and host climate action events including a symposium this fall, and the organization will continue to grow food in its gardens for said events.
This article appears in July 2023.