ProMedica today debuted the new Ebeid Institute for Population Health, which includes a ground-floor grocery store to address what health system officials said was a food desert in UpTown.

While Market on the Green, which opens to customers Wednesday, is the most visible portion of the institute, ProMedica leaders said the institute’s broad mission is to improve a neighborhood’s health by providing easy access to healthy foods, nutrition education, and job opportunities for residents.

The small market at the corner of 18th Street and Madison Avenue has fresh meat, vegetables, and other staples, with about 25 percent of all food purchased from Toledo-area companies, said market manager Anthony Goodwin.

There will be three managers and seven staff called “trainees” at the market. The trainees are hired through OhioMeansJobs Lucas County, which drew applicants from ZIP codes near the market.

The trainees work 22 hours a week for 12 months, with four of those hours devoted to some form of job training. After that year, the trainees are encouraged to find full-time employment in ProMedica, Mr. Goodwin said. The market will pay the trainees minimum wage.

The second floor of the Ebeid Institute will open early next year, ProMedica officials said, with space for a teaching kitchen and other classrooms for community use.

ProMedica held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Institute today and allowed the public to tour the market.

Philanthropist and ProMedica board member Russell Ebeid of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., donated the money to restore the building, which has been sitting vacant for more than a decade.

The building, which had been vacant for more than a decade, is across the street from the Lucas County Democratic Headquarters and adjacent to the UpTown Green Park. It had been owned by the city, which donated it to ProMedica.

First Published December 8, 2015, 9:04 p.m.