Here’s what happens when a neighborhood’s only grocery store closes
“Black people ‘will be disproportionately impacted by having this new food desert in our community, and we can’t ignore that reality,’ said Ruth Jones Nichols, president and CEO of the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, located across the street from the St. Paul’s area. ‘This isn’t just a food access or social justice issue. It really is a racial justice issue.’”
New York (CNN Business)The nearby Save A Lot supermarket was a lifeline for Karina Rayeford, a single mom of three kids in downtown Norfolk, Virginia.
The grocery store, located in the predominantly Black public housing community of St. Paul’s where she lives, wasn’t the fanciest. But it had all the vegetables, meats, cereals, milk and household items Rayeford needed for her family at prices she could afford. And, most importantly, it was just around a five-minute walk from her apartment. Rayeford would visit the store between her appointments as a hair braider and send her teenage kids on quick runs to pick up groceries.
That changed last month when Save A Lot, the only grocery store within a mile from Rayeford, closed its doors in the middle of a pandemic.