After Sheridan’s IGA closed more than a year ago, residents have had to travel out of town to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. This month, thanks to the work of Purdue Extension’s Community Wellness Coordinator, Gloria Del Greco, Sheridan will again be able to buy fresh produce.
“We started this process over a year ago when Sheridan lost their IGA grocery store and became a ‘Food Desert,’” Del Greco told The Reporter. “My job was to meet with the community and learn how we could address their needs, to make the healthy choice the easy choice.”
The first thing Del Greco did was reach out to the community by writing letters asking people to attend meetings and form a coalition to address the lack of access to fresh produce.
“As the Community Wellness Coordinator, I had to do assessments of the community and help them determine what areas we could address,” Del Greco said. “The lack of easy access to fresh produce was one of the first issues we looked at. We also addressed the need of bringing the Farmers market closer to the downtown so it would be more walker friendly.”
Del Greco learned that there are a few pilot locations for Dollar General stores offering fresh food, but the pilot program was only being tested at three Indiana locations, and the company was not planning any more in the state at that time. Then she learned one of the pilot locations was in Argos, Ind., in a store with the same size and design of the Sheridan location.
“I stopped by Argos and took pictures of their produce section,” Del Greco said. “I posted that picture on Facebook along with my contact person [at Dollar General] and suggested community members should reach out to him and request the same for Sheridan.”
Del Greco looked into the distance from Sheridan to the nearby Kroger and Walmart stores, as well as the distance from the towns north of Sheridan, who also are missing grocery store access. Armed with that information, she wrote to the CEO/Chairman of Dollar General and indicated how beneficial it would be for dollar General to put produce into Sheridan.
“A few weeks later I received a phone call from the Senior Director of store planning letting me know they would put produce into Sheridan within the next 60-90 days,” Del Greco told The Reporter. “A week and a half later, he called again and informed me they were starting the installation of the set up this past weekend and that there would be produce by July 7.”
A ribbon cutting at Dollar General, 3888 State Road 47, Sheridan, is scheduled for 11 a.m. on July 12.
Great work, Gloria.