- Bringing grocery stores back to Jackson's South Side — what could work?
- A new site for a grocery store on Biddle Street was recently announced by the City of Jackson.
- Welcome Home Organization aims to open a grocery store at First and Greenwood by Fall.
- Dena Morgan, Executive Director of Dungytreei Heritage Foundation, is proposing a co-op on Prospect Street.
- WATCH THE VIDEO for a glimpse of the struggles South Side neighbors face...as well as some ideas for the future.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
"Honey, we're desperate. We're desperate. We've been waiting for this for a long, long time," says Cheryl Crim of various plans to bring grocery stores back to Jackson's South Side.
For South Side neighbors like Crim, the lack of nearby grocery stores can mean a host of difficulties.
Crim lives in what the US Department of Agriculture would call a "food desert" — in urban areas, that's when your nearest grocery store is more than a mile away.
This is Cheryl's bus stop on MLK Drive…where she waits to catch a bus to Walmart — one of her options for going to get groceries.
But it's a round trip she says can take: "I'd say an hour to an hour-and-a-half….Makes my day kind of short."
The City of Jackson recently announced the site of a new, future grocery store on nearby Biddle Street. And now, I'm hearing from some South Side neighbors who are stepping forward with plans for even more options.
Vittoria Jimerson and her husband Jason Overmeyer tell me their Welcome Home Organization will have a grocery store in their building on First and Greenwood by this fall.
"We've made a lot of community partnerships with local farmers, so beef farm, poultry farm, fish farm…so they're going to sell all their products in here," says Jimerson. "We want to be locally sourced."
And there's Dena Morgan. Morgan is the Executive Director of Dungytreei Heritage Foundation. She wants to see a co-op on East Prospect Street:
"My initiative is to help the community open a community-owned grocery store."
Morgan says she's in talks with co-op leaders in other communities to map out what might come next in the planning process.
Crim says the closest of these three for her would be the City's Biddle Street site. If the weather's good, she says she could even walk to it.
"It'd be good, 'cause it'll be easier, you know, closer," says Crim. "It's about time. It's a long time coming."
Want to see more local news? Visit the FOX47News Website.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Neighborhood News, Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines, and Daily Forecasts.
