CHICOPEE – Fruit Fair has been Chicopee’s local supermarket since 1936. What started off as a small farmstand has now grown into a full-scale grocery store that specializes in local produce, Polish foods, Spanish foods and more. The store recently celebrated their 85th anniversary in January.

Jared and Sam Newell have been the owners of Fruit Fair since late 2019. According to Sam Newell, the original owner of Fruit Fair died over 20 years ago. After his passing, the family sold it to a different owner who ran it for more than 10 years. Newell and her husband purchased Fruit Fair only four months before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

To celebrate the 85th anniversary, Newell said Fruit Fair is offering a variety of “85 year oriented sales.” Due to the pandemic and capacity restrictions, Newell said the store isn’t able to celebrate as much as they would like, but they do have plans for future activities.

“Once we are able to have more people in the store, we are going to do a huge taste test,” she said.

Fruit Fair is the only independent grocery store left in Chicopee, according to Newell. The store works with more than 60 local vendors to supply produce from nearby farms. When COVID-19 hit, Newell said the store was slammed with business, but because they receive local supply, they were able to continue to provide for customers.

“Because we are independent and we work a lot with local agriculture and local bakers and all of that, we were actually the only grocery store that had produce, meat, bread for people to buy. It was empty in all of the big box stores like Walmart, Big Y and Stop and Shop, and we actually were full. We actually had product to sell,” she said.

During the pandemic, Fruit Fair also started their Golden Box program. This program consists of a $39.99 box of produce or a $49.99 box of meat. The boxes have $50 to $55 worth of produce in one and about $65 of meat in the other, said Newell. The boxes are mostly filled with local produce and provisions. Fruit Fair is still providing these boxes and, most recently, put out a box for Lent.

Fruit Fair also offers online and over-the-phone grocery ordering. Newell said they started this specifically to help seniors who didn’t want to shop during the pandemic.

“We try to be there for our seniors,” she said.     

Newell said Fruit Fair is thankful for customer support and looks forward to keeping the grocery store alive for 85 more years. Newell said it is important that Fruit Fair continues to provide healthy, sustainable food to Chicopee residents.

“In this zip code of Chicopee it is a complete food desert because all the big box stores are on the other side. This area of Chicopee doesn’t have access to fresh food, local food, any of that. We are the only source of fresh food here so our motive is definitely not the quick buck. Everything we do reflects some kind of sustainability,” she said.

Those interested in learning more about Fruit Fair, the Golden Box program or online ordering are encouraged to visit their website at https://fruitfair.net/ or call 592-1097. Fruit Fair is located at 398 Front St.in Chicopee.