The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly unanimously voted to give Anabel’s Grocery — which is a student-run nonprofit grocery store located on the first floor of Anabel Taylor Hall — $40,000 in funding to its subsidy funds over the next two years in its Oct. 27 meeting.
In spring 2025, the Division of Student & Campus life ended the University’s affiliation with the Center for Transformative Action — which is Anabel’s parent organization and has maintained an affiliation agreement with Cornell since 1971 — cutting over $100,000 in funding, which will occur in two years.
Resolution 2: “An Act to Fund Anabel’s Grocery,” which was sponsored by graduate students President Nicholas Brennan, Vice President of Finance Siim Sepp and Finance Commission Chair Anurag Koyyada, calls for moving $40,000 from the Assembly’s reserve account to its operating account to help fund Anabel’s.
The resolution calls for this payment to be made over the next two academic years, with $25,000 being transferred from 2025-2026 and $15,000 from 2026-2027. This money would go towards its subsidy fund, which the store would use to keep its prices at or below local supermarket rates.
According to the resolution, Anabel’s received approximately 32 percent of its orders in total from graduate or professional students, which represent 4,518 purchases in 2025. Additionally, the resolution explains that Anabel’s draws around 20 percent of its sales from its subsidy fund to supplement $19,519.38 in operational costs in 2025.
“This is part of a long-standing partnership GPSA has had with Anabel’s Grocery,” Brennan said.
Furthermore, by donating the $40,000, the GPSA hopes to fulfill a 2016 agreement with Anabel’s that would grant the store $80,000 over four years. While for the first two years, the Graduate student assembly paid $40,000 as per the agreement, due to the interruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic the other $40,000 was never paid.
“I find it a bare minimum piece of legislation to give to Anabel’s the $40,000 we have promised them.” Brennan explained.
A representative from Anabel’s expressed their gratitude for the “generous financial support” provided by Resolution 2 in a statement sent to The Sun.
“This funding will enable us to replenish our subsidy fund and maintain affordable prices during a time when low-cost staples are few and far between,” a representative from Anabel’s wrote. “We’re proud to provide nutritious food to graduate and undergraduate students for whom transportation, cost, or time may pose a barrier to routinely accessing healthy food.”
Brennan expressed the purpose of passing the resolution and what it will provide for graduate and undergraduate students in getting access to affordable groceries in a statement sent to The Sun.
“Amid rising costs of living in Ithaca and beyond, providing access to low-cost necessities is crucial for our Graduate and Professional Student community,” Brennan wrote. “I'm immensely grateful for the effort of the wonderful people at Anabel's Grocery who continue to work hard to deliver fresh produce and local products at affordable prices right here on Cornell's campus.”
Anabel’s explained that while they are grateful for the support of the GPSA’s passage of Resolution 2, they hope to seek a longer-term solution for funding.
“Especially when living costs are on the rise and efforts to support food security remain limited and underfunded, our underlying goal — to expand food access across Cornell’s campus — remains unwavering,” Anabel’s wrote. “Though we will continue to seek a longer-term funding solution for our store, we are grateful to all of the students, faculty, and staff who have supported our efforts from the beginning, and to GPSA for enabling these efforts to persist in the near term.”
Correction: November 2, 4:17 p.m.: This article has been updated to reflect that the CTA will see a $100,000 cut in two years and that the $40,000 will go from the GPSA’s reserve account to its operating account to allocate towards Anabel’s.
Rajorshi Chatterjee is a member of the Class of 2029 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is a contributor for the News department and can be reached at rc978@cornell.edu.
