The recent closing of the Harding’s Market grocery store in Kalamazoo’s Vine neighborhood wasn’t just a routine case of a business shutting its doors. The market was the only grocery store in Vine, and its closing left residents scrambling. Some even formed online groups to protest and debate. And finding a new source of food for the neighborhood’s many low-income residents isn’t easy.
If you talk to residents of Vine, the thing everybody mentions is how walkable it is. That’s what makes it attractive to seniors, students, and the nearly half of Vine residents who are below the poverty line. For the many without a car, Vine is their little ecosystem. Everything’s there, close by.
So when the Harding’s Market on Howard Street – the grocery store in the middle of that little ecosystem – shut down last month, it was a shock.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” says Karika Phillips, who used to go to the Harding’s every Sunday after church. More importantly, though, she’s also the former director of the Kalamazoo County Center for Health Equity. She’s studied food access in the county, and she’s worried.
Research has shown that when there isn’t a grocery store close by, it’s the low-income people who are stuck having to scrounge together more cash to pay for food. And the food they do get can be unhealthy, leading to problems like obesity.
“When we talk about the conceptual framework around poverty and disparities and access, one of the issues is transportation," Phillips says. "So I thought about the folks who use that grocery store, and now the question becomes, where will they go to shop?”
Harding’s was the only grocery store in Vine. Others are at least a few miles away. For residents without a car, the closing turned the simple act of getting food into an ordeal. Do you walk two or three miles lugging groceries? Carve out half a day for a bus trip? Vine resident Jerod Kauffman says the options aren’t good.
“I tried the buses like twice around here, and I’ve just gotten confused and lost," he says. "So I’ve just shied away from it. But I’ve been looking more and more into it because of this.”
Most of the time, though, Kauffman says he just holds out. For the neighborhood, the only permanent solution is to try to bring in something new. That’s not easy. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Kalamazoo’s Northside neighborhood had a similar problem. The community wanted a grocery store but businesses weren’t interested.
"In the beginning, we were told by some of the very operators that are in Kalamazoo that they would never come to our neighborhood,” says Mattie Jordan-Woods, the executive director for the Northside Association for Community Development.
The Northside eventually got its grocery store, inside the building that’s now the Park Street Market. But it took a lot of effort. The association had to build it from the ground up. The land, the building, the freezers, all of it. Only then would a grocery store move in.
"You have to say to the operator, we’re reducing your risk," Jordan-Woods says. "We need you to come in and provide groceries, employment, to our community. And in return, we will give you a very low lease amount and we will give you a turn-key building."
But Jordan-Woods is quick to add there’s no guarantee that will work in Vine. It’s an entirely different neighborhood
“Vine will determine what is the best for Vine to do.”
That’s exactly what Vine is doing now. Vine Neighborhood Association President Steve Walsh says the neighborhood’s been concerned about food access for a while, even before Harding’s closed. It’s part of the reason why the association purchased the Central Corners building at Vine and Westnedge a few months ago. Walsh says adding a market there is part of the plan.
"And there are a number of spots on our own in this commercial building that we’ve had preliminary conversations with food sources already," he explains. "So the hope is that with this closing, there may be more urgency or at least an element of understanding that this is a need and that we can address it."
Walsh acknowledges that he doesn’t know how long the process will take. But there is a vision: a neighborhood with access to everything residents need, students and old-timers alike.
“We’re being very deliberate when we’re thinking about our sense of place," Walsh says. "There are 80 million millennials in this country, and over half of them don’t drive and don’t want to drive. So I think we’re seeing a return to actual neighborhoods, and you see people in the Vine neighborhood who have invested in that walkability and neighborhood feel, and you hope that someone recognizes this vacuum and addresses that and puts a food source right in our commercial corridor as well.”
Making that a reality will take some time. But the neighborhood says it’s off to a good start.
