CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Veteran pride: New owners reopen Save-a-Lot store in Danville to help food desert area

Danville Register & Bee - 6/13/2017

Long before 8 a.m. Wednesday, customers began lining up at the Danville Save-a-Lot store to take advantage of its reopening with new owners.

The first 200 customers received $10 off their purchase.

The eight new co-owners are all military veterans and proudly display this is a veteran-owned business.

The veterans decided they wanted to help areas throughout the country considered food deserts - communities that do not have a full-size grocery store within a mile in cities or 10 miles in rural areas.

The Danville Save-a-Lot, which closed without announcement earlier this year, is located in an area considered a food desert at 703 Piney Forest Road, in Piney Forest Shopping Center. So the group - called Honor Capital and based in Tulsa, Oklahoma - decided to make it their seventh Save-a-Lot store.

"We're not just grocery store owners," Matt Frederick, vice president overseeing Honor Capital's Impact Program, said. "We're here to provide a neighborhood grocery store you can be proud of."

The bright, spotless and inviting store is where some of the group's pride in their mission shows, Frederick said.

"We can't put up signs saying 'veteran owned' and not take pride in our appearance," Frederick said.

Honor Capital has taken advantage of a national campaign to improve food access for low-income communities. They have worked with Allie Atkeson, of the American Heart Association, who is the campaign manager for Virginia's "Voices for Healthy Kids" program, which is working to improve food access for the more than 1.7 million Virginians - including 480,000 children - who have limited access to grocery stores, particularly to fresh fruits and vegetables.

"We're working to make sure everyone has access to a beautiful grocery store like this one," Atkeson said. "We've encouraged [the people in this community] to talk about what it was like when this store closed ? these have been great guys to work with."

With grants and low-interest loans, communities with limited access to grocery stores across the state are beginning to see results.

Shoppers also were pleased the store had reopened.

"We shopped here all the time," Judy Weatherford, of Blairs, said. "I'm so glad it reopened, and it looks a whole lot better than it did."

Danville Vice Mayor Alonzo Jones was there for the opening, and as he looked at the long line of people waiting to get into the store, he laughed and said he was folding up his prepared speech and told them to enjoy the beautiful store.

As shoppers began to file into the store, Jones commented to Frederick, "Those steaks will be gone by 9 a.m."

Frederick smiled and said the store now has a butcher on site.

"He's cutting steaks as fast as he can," Frederick said.