Fresh Corners: Bringing healthy food to corner stores

In 2015, Just Harvest and the Allegheny County Health Department launched Fresh Corners, a healthy corner store initiative to improve access to fresh food in under-served Allegheny County neighborhoods.

The Problem

According to a 2012 federal report, among cities of its size (with populations of 250,000‐500,000) Pittsburgh has the largest percentage of people residing in communities with “low supermarket access.” At that time, nearly half (145,245) of Pittsburgh residents were experiencing this low access, and 71% of them were low‐income. Some people call such areas “food deserts,” but we and others refer to this systemic human-made phenomenon as food apartheid when it disproportionately afflicts communities of color.

Our 2013 report, “A Menu for Food Justice,” concluded that in solving this problem, “one size doesn’t fit all.” Just because a neighborhood lacks a large supermarket doesn’t mean a large supermarket is the solution for all neighborhoods. Diverse struggling neighborhoods have different sorts of barriers to access to nutritious and affordable food and different sorts of resources to address them.

A Solution

Like Fresh Access – our successful program to enable farmers markets to accept food stamps – Fresh Corners is a forward-looking and creative response to the problem of food apartheid. This program seeks to improve communities from within by partnering with local store owners to provide affordable access to fresh, nutritious, foods.

Our staff begins with a series of neighborhood assessments, stakeholder meetings, and focus groups necessary to identify the corner store owners and communities that are ready to undertake these new ventures. We make sure any store that joins the Fresh Corners network is also a SNAP retailer so that its new healthy foods can be purchased with food stamps. We supply store owners with the information and materials they need to succeed.

We supply store owners with the resources and information they need to succeed, and provide shoppers with access to fresh produce in their neighborhood. We are also proud of the fact that 11 of our 14 current Fresh Corners store owners are people of color.

Food Bucks and Fresh Corners

The Fresh Corners program has partnered with the Food Trust in order to provide the Food Bucks program at select Fresh Corners stores. The Food Bucks program aims to help SNAP shoppers purchase more fresh produce by providing coupons and incentives for SNAP purchases. Food Bucks can also be used at participating farmers markets.

Fresh Corner Stores with Food Bucks:
For every $5 that a customers spends in SNAP they receive a $2 Food Buck to purchase fresh produce at the store.
SNAP transactions below $5 will still receive one $2 Food Buck.
In & Out Market
300 Helen St, McKees Rocks, PA 15136

Hours: Daily 7 am–10 pm
Produce Marketplace
519 Saint Clair Ave, Clairton, PA 15227

Hours: Tues-Sat 11 am–4 pm
Rocks Express
700 Frederick St, McKees Rocks, PA 15136

Hours: Mon-Sun 8 am–10 pm

Fresh Corners Locations

Fresh fruits and vegetables like apples, bananas, oranges, potatoes, and onions are now available – and can be purchased using food stamps – at the following ten stores.

Juba Grocery International African Market storefront with the owner standing out front. Open Every Day 1pm-9pm (412) 537-1897

Juba Grocery | Brentwood
2721 Brownsville Rd. 15227

Produce Marketplace storefront | Frank Sottile (TrailBlaze Creative)

Produce Marketplace | Clairton
519 Saint Clair Ave. 15227

Farm Fresh Food Market storefront. Open Every Day 7am-12pm (412) 362-1111

Farm Fresh Food Market | East Liberty
226 N. Negley Ave. 15206

Sherry's Family Market storefront. Hours: 8am-8pm daily | (412) 502-2722

Sherry’s Family Market | East Pittsburgh
549 Bessemer Ave. 15112

Ann's Market - an outside dislplay table with a painted sign saying Fresh Vegetables Fruits and the owener standing out front. Open daiy 9am-9pm (412) 765-0918 and a hand-written white poster listing available fruits and vegeables

Ann’s Market | The Hill
2316 Webster Ave. 15219

L.A. Grocery storefron. Hours 8am-11pm daily. (412) 661-2421

L. A. Grocery | Larimer
511 Larimer Ave. 15206

East African Grocery storefront with the owners out front. Open Every Day M-F: 10am-9pm Sa-Su: 8am-8pm (814) 218-6920

East African Grocery | McKees Rocks
1008 Dorhman Rd. 15136

In & Out Market is a Fresh Corners store open every day 7am-11pm (412) 331-2630

In & Out | McKees Rocks
300 Helen St. 15136

Rocks Express is a Fresh Corners store open every day 8am-10pm (412) 771-7625

Rocks Express | McKees Rocks
700 Frederick St. 15136

Bailey Food Mart is now a Fresh Corners store open every day 7am-10pm (412) 672-2827

Bailey Food Mart | McKeesport
2316 Bailie Ave. 15132

Millvale Market storefront. Hours: 8am-8pm Mon-Sat | 9am-6pm Sun (412) 536-1830

Millvale Market | Millvale
524 Grant Ave. 15209

Yetters Candies storefront. M-F 10am-7:30pm | Sat 10am-3:30pm | (412) 821-1387

Yetter’s Candies | Millvale
504 Grant Ave. 15209

Schwartz Super Market (picture of storefront) is now a Fresh Corners store! Open Every Day 8am-7pm (412) 281-3534

Schwartz Super Market | Uptown
1901 Fifth Ave 15219

Picture of Farmer Girl Eb storefront at the corner of two roads with flowering plants along the curb and a table with an umbrella and chairs. | Hours: 11am-7pm Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Sat Closed Sundays (412) 458-1780

Farmer Girl Eb | West End
1 Noblestown Rd. 15220

Want to see a Fresh Corners store in your neighborhood?

Contact our Fresh Corners coordinator:
Dawn Marie Clepper-Hall at [email protected] / (412) 643-4870


Trulieve logo

Trulieve’s mission is to provide high-quality and safe products their patients can trust. Fresh Corners is proud to partner with Trulieve to help drive community input on neighborhood food access needs!

Fresh Corners is also made possible by people like you. Please make a tax-deductible donation to support this program.

Donate

Select the checkbox for “In honor of” and enter “Fresh Corners” in the first and last name field.
Or you can send a check to us with “Fresh Corners” in the memo,
or call us at (412) 431-8960 x601 so we can take your donation over the phone.
);