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A sign sits in the shopfront where a mother-daughter team hopes to open a Black-owned super market near a federally recognized food desert. (Photo: Crixell Matthews/VPM News)
*Joi Bass reported this story
A few months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Food Rite off Azalea Avenue closed its doors, making it even more difficult to get groceries in the Highland Park area.
Like many areas in Richmond, the Department of Agriculture labels Highland Park as a food desert, an area with high levels of poverty and low access to grocery stores.
A mother and daughter team planned to open Darrell’s Family Supermarket, a new grocery store, in the location on Dec. 12, but had to postpone after unexpected problems cropped up, says Renee Trueheart, a local real estate agent behind the initiative.