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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