I AM BLACK HISTORY | Elizabeth “Liz” Abunaw

Elizabeth “Liz” Abunaw

Access to fresh food should not be determined by zip code. Yet for decades, many Black neighborhoods in Chicago have faced systemic disinvestment that limited access to full service grocery stores. Elizabeth “Liz” Abunaw decided to confront that reality head on.

Liz Abunaw is the founder of Forty Acres Fresh Market, Chicago’s only Black owned full service grocery store. What makes her story powerful is not just the store itself, but the intentional history embedded in its name, mission, and location.

Before launching her business in 2017, Liz built a successful corporate career. She earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and later an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She worked in sales and marketing roles at major corporations including General Mills and Microsoft. But when she was laid off from Microsoft, she chose not to return to corporate life. She chose to build something that addressed a structural injustice she saw in her own city.

Liz reframes the commonly used term “food desert” as “food apartheid.” She argues that the lack of grocery access in Black neighborhoods is not accidental or natural. It is the result of policies, corporate decisions, and economic systems that excluded communities of color from essential resources. By naming the problem accurately, she challenges people to think differently about responsibility and solutions.

Forty Acres Fresh Market began as pop up markets and grocery delivery services serving Chicago’s West Side. Over time, Liz secured $2.5 million in city grants to expand her vision. In September 2025, she opened a permanent 10,000 square foot brick and mortar store at 5713 West Chicago Avenue in the Austin neighborhood. The store now serves more than 40,000 low income residents and has created approximately 25 local jobs.

But beyond the numbers, it represents ownership. The name “Forty Acres” references the unfulfilled promise of “40 acres and a mule” made to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. For Liz, the store is a modern reclamation of that promise. The land is the storefront. The mule is the means of production. The jobs and community wealth created are steps toward economic self determination.

Her work is rooted in what many describe as economic stewardship. She believes that circulating the Black dollar within the community is key to building generational wealth. By creating a Black owned grocery store in a historically underserved neighborhood, she is strengthening local infrastructure while preserving dignity and choice.

Elizabeth Abunaw is Black History because she transformed personal setback into community empowerment. She used her education, corporate experience, and strategic insight to challenge structural inequality and build something tangible.

Her story reminds us that history is not only written in protest or policy. It is also written in storefronts, supply chains, and systems rebuilt with intention.

This is Black History in motion.