Columbia neighborhood lost its only grocery store. Here’s what’s being done to help
After the Save-A-Lot grocery store on Harden Street closed on Saturday, a coalition of community organizations is holding a “pop up grocery” next week for residents in an area that’s now being called a “food desert.”
The pop-up market will give residents a chance to purchase produce, milk, eggs, rice and beans for $5 cash or the equivalent in SNAP/EBT. Bread is also being donated by Panera Bread.
The pop-up will be held from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 4, at the FoodShare Food Hub at 2016 Harden St., the same Columbia Housing Authority-owned site where the Save-A-Lot shut its doors last week.
“Our families in the 29203 and other low income zip codes have been particularly impacted,” FoodShare director Beverly Wilson said in a statement. “With the closing of the North Main’s Harvey’s, Bi-Lo, and Piggly Wiggly in the last few years, the food access crisis deepens.”
FoodShare teaches cooking skills and distributes fresh food to low-income residents. The program is hosting the pop-up grocery along with other community organizations, including the Richland County coalition of Eat Smart Move More SC and the Columbia Food Policy Committee.
Advocates continue to search for more long-term solutions for the area where Save-A-Lot operated. The store had been run by the housing authority’s non-profit arm since January, but it was ultimately decided the store was taking up too much of the agency’s discretionary spending.
The store served a population near the Oak Read high rise and down the street from the former Allen Benedict Court. Its closure officially creates a food desert in the Edgewood neighborhood.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as an urban area where residents are more than a mile from the nearest grocery store. The next closest store, the Food Lion at 1001 Harden St., is a little more than a mile from the Save-A-Lot location.
This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 5:32 PM.
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