Mississippi talks new grocery stores for different areas
MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – One of the essential ingredients to eating healthy is having access to healthy food.
It sounds simple enough, but in many areas of Mississippi it’s not that easy.
Many Mississippians live in “food deserts”, areas where access to affordable, healthy food is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.
Freshly’s Market is working to change that on a local level.
The Aberdeen-based grocery held a round table discussion today with local residents, elected, and community leaders, along with representatives of the National Grocers’ Association.
The N-G-A represents independent grocery owners.
Their involvement is seen as key to addressing access in areas that larger chains may not see as profitable.
For its part, Freshly’s has plans to expand to Smithville, which hasn’t had a grocery store in more than a decade.
“Definitely supporting your independent grocers; we are the community. We are here for the community, and one of our sayings is ‘we’re built by the community for the community’. And, just support your local groceries. It’s very important to keep us in business, not only that, we provide economic development to the areas. Because, we also bring jobs, and people don’t realize we bring in jobs to the area. People don’t have to drive out, and one of the goals of ours is, we don’t pay minimum wage. We pay above minimum wage for the state of Mississippi”, said Freshly’s CEO Katina Holliday.
Currently, the closest grocery store to Smithville is in Amory, about a 10 mile drive.
