DANVILLE – Long-time Danville resident Versey Dyson-Speights bumped into the owner of Heavenly Square Grocery outside his store.
“Pastor Miller, y’all are sold out of what I need,” Dyson-Speights told New Life Church of Faith pastor Thomas Miller. “Now I have to go way across town.”
Dyson-Speights needed turkey, and the only other groceries in the neighborhood are convenience stores.
With help from a state grant, Carle Health and other partners, Heavenly Square is bringing fresh ingredients to an area of Danville where they were inaccessible before.
The store held its grand opening on Saturday after a soft opening May.
The area around Heavenly Square is low-income with low access to grocery stores, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Access Research Atlas.
“That’s a challenge for some people without transportation, and it really makes [this location] convenient,” Pastor Miller said. “There’s no other healthy food. We just have these places that have a lot of processed foods.”
The store was awarded $5 million through the Vermilion County Community Health Collaborative, a group of multiple organizations like Carle Health, OSF Sacred Heart Medical Center and Danville School District 118.
Miller said it was his dream to open up a grocery store in the area.
“I had the burden that I had to dream. I had the vision and the desire. But if God did not give us favor… There were 40 counties that wanted this same grant, and we were selected,” the pastor said.
Miller expects the store to be self-sustaining after the five years of funding end.