Food Deserts

Cairo, once a food desert, welcomed its new market last year with balloons and cheers. But the store is struggling — exposing problems with the programs set up to help.

Propel Kitchens, located in Pagedale, gives people a second chance by combining career training with care that goes above and beyond a traditional food industry job.

The state’s requirements comprise ‘one of the nation’s most stringent bans for receiving SNAP benefits,’ according to one report.

The program would provide $40 in food benefits for each month an eligible child is on summer break, loaded onto a card that can be used like a debit card to purchase groceries. Missouri's decision is nonbinding, and the state now has until Feb. 15 to submit a detailed plan to the federal government.

Over a year after a lawsuit alleged the state’s ‘dysfunctional’ SNAP call center violates federal law, low-income Missourians still face automatic disconnections and wait times of around an hour.

Another Save A Lot store, at 2600 State St., remains open. It is not owned by the same person.

The project is a collaboration among multiple local organizations and will include research that is connected to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

While there is a Schnucks and Aldi on the same road, Walmart’s closure in the lower-income community will limit options for residents, experts say.

Fields Foods will open in Pagedale on March 7. The north St. Louis County municipality has been without a local grocery store since October 2021.

As part of his $49.6 billion budget proposal, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker earmarked $20 million toward helping independent grocers open in food deserts across the state.