Touting the need for the federal government to support sustainable and local food options, US Sen. Ed Markey visited the Dorchester Food Co-op on Bowdoin Street last Friday. The market, which opened last year in a new building at 195 Bowdoin St., uses a membership and worker-owned model and offers locally grown produce.

“We need the Department of Agriculture to support these efforts to produce food inside the community,” said Markey, who called the co-op “an oasis of healthy foods” and added: “We have to make sure it grows and grows and grows so that it is the way in which the way the community thinks about food. Food is medicine and the healthier that food is, the healthier the children – especially – in the community will be.”

Store manager John Santos said the co-op had met some “challenges” initially and its staffing is now reduced from about 33 to 19 employees. “The business model is taking time to warm up to the community,” he told Markey. “We’re growing. It’s slow and that’s been challenging but we hope now the community will come out and support us.”

State Rep. Chris Worrell joined Markey for a tour of the co-op. The two also spent time in his Fifth Suffolk district last week, visiting a solar-powered affordable housing development in Uphams Corner.