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Groceries again available in Vinton County

By Mary Beth Lane

The Columbus Dispatch

McARTHUR — Vinton County is a food desert no more.

An oasis has appeared in the Appalachian Ohio county in the form of Campbell’s Market, which celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon cutting Monday.

The impoverished, rural county of about 13,200 people about 75 miles southeast of Columbus had had no supermarket since the SuperValu in McArthur closed in 2013. Shoppers had been driving about 30 minutes from McArthur to shop at Wal-Mart or Kroger stores in Athens, Chillicothe, Logan, Jackson or Wellston.

Now local residents have a supermarket they can call their own.

“I am very happy for Vinton County,” said Ellen Stutzman, who wheeled a shopping cart through the supermarket picking up provisions for a lunch scheduled at Salt Creek School, a private school for Amish students in the Londonderry area. “I think they have got a beautiful store here.”

Campbell’s Market, a fourth-generation family grocery with stores in Zanesville and Duncan Falls in Muskingum County, broke ground on the 12,000-square-foot supermarket at 630 W. Main St., about a mile west of downtown McArthur, in March and opened for business about a month ago.

The nonprofit, community-development financial institution Finance Fund Capital Corp. funded a nearly $1.6 million Healthy Food for Ohio financing package that helped Campbell’s Market build the new store. An additional $50,000 from Vinton County and the Campbell family’s purchase of about two acres for the store and parking made up other pieces of the funding.

The Healthy Food for Ohio program began in 2016. It provides loans and grants to help stores selling fresh food open or expand in low-income, underserved rural and urban areas.

“It’s really important for this community and it’s an example of how public-private partnerships can really solve problems,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, an Upper Arlington Republican who, with state Rep. Ryan Smith, a Bidwell Republican, helped nail down the financing package that helped Campbell’s Market build the new store. “Today we get to declare the food desert in Vinton County is over. This is a big deal.”

Stivers joined store co-owners Richard and Beth Campbell, county commissioners, state Sen. Bob Peterson, a Sabina Republican, and other officials at the grand opening, and then strolled the store’s seven aisles to do some grocery shopping. The supermarket has fresh produce and meat and a deli section that includes some locally produced cheeses.

The 34 employees are local residents.

“I’m thankful to have a grocery store and to have a job,” worker Connie Mercer said from behind the meat counter.

Sue and Steve Stratton, who live just outside McArthur, have been shopping at Campbell’s Market since it opened. They had been driving an hour round trip to the Kroger in Jackson. Besides appreciating the local store’s convenience, they reported the meat is good, the vegetables are fresh and the employees are friendly at Campbell’s Market.

Read the story here

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20171204/groceries-again-available-in-vinton-county