How to Keep the Local Grocery Store Open: A Challenge for NC CED Professionals

Community and Economic Development – Blog by UNC School of Government

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How to Keep the Local Grocery Store Open: A Challenge for NC CED Professionals

By Maureen Berner

Published July 18, 2023

Almost 15 years ago, a brief CED blog post highlighted several resources for supporting or attracting local grocery stores, especially ones in rural areas.  Much more recently, a CED post highlighted the various ways CED professionals interact with food systems overall. This post brings North Carolina CED professionals up to speed on the activities and initiatives underway around supporting, attracting or building local grocery stores in particular.  How can CED professionals support these vital but struggling community institutions?

The most recent government statistics available on areas with low numbers of or access to grocery stores is from 2016, part of the federal Food Environment Atlas. While somewhat dated, it nonetheless highlights the fact rural areas in North Carolina have been losing grocery stores over time. In 2011, Camden County, in far eastern North Carolina, had only one grocery.  By 2016, it had lost that store. Similarly, in the same years, in far western North Carolina, Polk County went from three grocery stores to two, and Graham and Clay Counties went from two groceries to one. In the far southern part of the state, Anson County went from six groceries to two. In the north, Northampton County went from five to two. Rural areas are not the only ones facing pressure – it is a challenge when urban communities can lose long-established local grocery stores as well.

Supporting rural grocery stores has been a target of federal funding through the USDA’s Healthy Foods Financing Initiative (HFFI), first authorized in 2014. While funding applications are not being accepted at the moment, a reauthorization bill for the program was introduced several months ago, in March 2023. In the past, the initiative has used a public-private partnership model to support rural grocery stores with grants, loans and technical assistance through a variety of partners such as The Food Trust and the U.S. Department of the Treasury Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI).  This past February, the CDFI Fund awarded $23 million in HFFI-Financial Assistance awards to eight CDFIs.  Local funding has also been an option.

Two organizations have valuable resources for communities seeking advice on supporting local grocery stores. The Rural Grocery Initiative is probably the most well-known to practitioners nationally, out of Kansas State University, with resources for public officials and leaders, information about different ownership models, and on-line webinars on grocery store business transition – including a newly developed, innovative training program leading to a Rural Grocery Specialist Certificate. The Food Trust is also a major partner in efforts to build capacity of local markets. For example, they provide an excellent, free, on-line recording of a 2022 webinar explaining HFFIs, successful examples and lessons learned, along with other background materials and technical assistance resources.

Creative ownership models are one of the current focus areas across these resources. Public-Private partnerships are one approach. The NPR story described above highlights an example where a school runs the local grocery (with student clerks), the building is owned by the town, and the school district and a non-profit helped with financing.  Cooperatives and nonprofit ventures are another. The Rural Grocery Initiative mentioned above received a $175,000 USDA Rural Cooperative Grant this spring to focus on “elevating awareness and understanding of the cooperative model as a viable solution for rural food access.” One example of such a cooperative in North Carolina is the Harvest Market, part of the Share Cooperative located in a food desert in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County area. Another example is the Fertile Ground Food Cooperative in Southeast Raleigh, located in a traditionally under-served urban area.

While some of the organizations mentioned here and other organizations may have a limited area in which they invest or work directly, their resources are shared widely and can help any North Carolina CED professional build local grocery store capacity. Additional background can be found on the School of Government microsite, Building Assets for the Rural Future.