The Rockford branch of the NAACP is campaigning to bring a new grocery store to the city’s west side to address what they say is a lack of healthy food options in the area. Organizers have created a petition for the project.
The proposed grocery store would be located near the Lowe’s distribution center off Springfield Road. Supporters say the project is necessary to eliminate a food desert and provide an economic boost to a neighborhood that has lost multiple major retailers and health care providers in recent years.
Jennifer Long, a member of the NAACP, said she has experienced the challenges of the food desert firsthand since moving to the area. She described the difficulty of ensuring her daughter had access to a grocery store. “My daughter and I moved out here three years ago, and I had a car, and she did, and we lived in separate places in Rockford,” Long said. “I had to keep driving her this massive amount to get to a store. It kind of like nerves you.”…