 |
 |
|||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hajji Gobana Park Grocery “Oromo people want to be independent and productive for society. We love the freedom we have here and we want to give back. To advance, we turn to what we know -- helping each other, working hard, having stores, getting education. I love it here, and it’s true, the cold weather I like the best of all. No matter what happens, I am grateful. This is the homeland for my children, and I do all I can to instruct pride in Minneapolis and the United States.” The son of a farmer from the troubled East African nation of Oromo, Haji Gobana immigrated to Minneapolis in 1999, sponsored by Western Initiatives for Neighborhood Development. He worked a succession of manufacturing jobs and then, after completing ESL classes and business training from the Neighborhood Development Center, opened a grocery on University Avenue in 2001. He and three partners in his family took over the grocery on the southeast corner of Park and Lake in March of 2005, intent on doing a combination of walk-in business and meat delivery to households in the local African community. Three months later, Lake Street construction began. Since then, receipts have been down by two thirds, forcing Gobana to seek an emergency loan through the African Development Center. Despite the current adversity, he remains focused on a prosperous future in Midtown, discussing plans to expand a deli business from the store and provide sidewalk seating taking advantage of the new streetscape soon to come.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
in business
