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Shoppers and staff at the StarkFresh Grocery Store in Alliance, Ohio. Courtesy StarkFresh Facebook Twitter

In Alliance, Ohio, an apartment complex for older adults is home to Stark County’s highest concentration of low-income adults age 50-plus. The community also has the highest number of

individuals who do not own a motor vehicle. For such residents, it’s a 40-minute round-trip walk from the apartment buildings to a dollar store that sells basic groceries, mostly processed

canned and frozen foods.

“Alliance, like other areas within the county, has seen investment in urban residential neighborhoods decline over the past half-century,” says Tom Phillips, executive director of

StarkFresh, a nonprofit working to address hunger in the county. “The decline has created pockets where there is no way to easily obtain affordable groceries.”

StarkFresh received a 2023 AARP Community Challenge grant to help transform a vacant space inside a nearby elementary school into a full-service grocery store. AARP funds were used to

purchase a walk-in freezer, store shelving, doors, paint and LED lights.

AARP Community Challenge

projectsDiscover other AARP Community Challenge grantees

“We have a unique business model,” Phillips says. “We are a nonprofit that is running a retail food operation.” The goal, he explains, is for the store to provide affordable food access

while financially breaking even. 

Without having to worry about profit, StarkFresh is able to employ incentive programs that can stretch the dollars of low-income customers who qualify for government assistance. Shoppers who

use a SNAP debit card receive 50 percent off all fruits and vegetables, whether the items are fresh, frozen, canned or dried. 

The budget for opening the Alliance grocery store was $150,000. 

“That amount is quite low for opening a store,” Phillips notes. “We maximize every available dollar we receive.” The model works, he explains, when the store has a strong partnership with an

organization or local government that can leverage a space it owns (such as the school building in Alliance), so it won’t charge high — or any — leasing costs.

Reactions 

The StarkFresh Grocery Store in Alliance has drawn a steady stream of customers since its grand opening in October 2023. 

Phillips uses the phrase “game changer” in describing what the store has meant to the community. Typical of the patron comments: “This is perfect for my mother. The location is away from all

the craziness at the busy store in the center of town. She just has to walk across the street.” 

Among the pleasant surprises, Phillips shares, is “the outpouring of support from funders and city officials in Alliance.” The project led to $148,000 in additional private and nonprofit

funding as well as several new partnerships. The work has spurred similar efforts in other parts of Ohio. 

“To open our first location, in Canton, we mainly funded it through loans and investments," says Phillips. "With the Alliance-based project, people with the money and power put their money

on the line to help see the project to fruition. It was a welcome change of pace for us.”

Think Outside the Box: “These stores come about from a healthy mixture of perseverance, tenacity and maybe being a bit bonkers,” says Phillips. “I'm blessed to have an active, resilient

board leading our organization that is not afraid to work well outside of normalcy and take chances to produce real change in our community.”

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: “We’ve spent the past six years figuring this out,” explains Phillips. “If you’re interested in starting a similar project, talk to someone who has already done it.

The Retail Grocery Program Pricing page on the StarkFresh website provides information about the process."