Within two years of its opening in 1990, NCC's Pathmark had become one of the chain's most profitable East Coast stores. With a two-thirds share in the venture, NCC is able to use its profits to support other programs. Most important, however, the supermarket provides a local alternative to the high-priced convenience stores that were previously the only source of goods in the Central Ward. The surrounding shopping facility also functions as an inter-generational social center that brings together youth and senior citizens. Community Control and Stability One of NCC's long-standing principles has been community control of its board.
All board members are community leaders who are people of color.
Based on NCC's belief that it takes a whole generation for substantive community change to take place, they are asked to make a 20-year commitment to the job. One of NCC's longtime board members is Mary Smith, who organized and presided over Newark's largest public housing tenants association over two decades ago, and is presently the executive director of the Babyland nursery network. The stability of NCC's board has been cited as the key reason that the organization was able to weather the fiscally turbulent decade of the '80s. The fact that NCC has refused to include any corporate or business interests on its board has helped build its reputation for being responsive and accountable to Central Ward residents. In order to maintain the integrity of its mission, NCC has used the New Community Foundation as a separate vehicle for soliciting the technical and financial support of the private sector.