A nonprofit grocery store in Cedar Rapids is continuing to look for ways to bring in more customers from around the city, in order to keep providing healthy food options to a neighborhood that otherwise wouldn’t have any.
Cedar Rapids Economic and Development Services Director Bill Micheel on Wednesday said city staff are working with two separate grocery chains to set up tours of the former Hy-Vee store at 1556 First Ave. NE.
A plea for help made last week by a nonprofit grocery store in Cedar Rapids has sparked a large response from community members to support the store’s goal of providing food for a neighborhood that would be a food desert if not for its presence.
The Auditor of State's Office released the re-audit this week. It was requested after the long-awaited city-backed grocery store at 221 Franklin St. in Waterloo suddenly closed its doors after less than a year in business.
The store would sell a variety of perishable and nonperishable food items in one of the areas most affected by the closure of the First Avenue Hy-Vee in Cedar Rapids.
First Avenue has been an emerging priority area for years, and now a plan recently approved by the Cedar Rapids City Council will clear the way for a slew of proposed partnerships and improvements.
There may be new hope that a grocery store will move into the former First Avenue Hy-Vee, but much more work still has to be done before the store becomes a reality, Bill Micheel, the city’s economic and development services director, said this week.
Iowa lawmakers look into ways to prevent rural ‘food deserts’
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