On a cold, clear day in December, Hamidah Sharif, owner of Sweet Valley Farm in Fort Valley, arranged baskets brimming with fresh peppers, onions, potatoes and other produce in the warmth of a small, brown building.
From the outside, the Sweet Valley Harvest Barn may not look like much. Made up of plywood painted coffee brown with a stack of cinder blocks for steps, the grocery — which Sharif opened on Dec. 6 — is on a transformative mission.
Sharif, who researches and teaches about public health and nutrition at Fort Valley State University, started the store — which she refers to as a “community-supported micro grocery” — as a way to combat food insecurity in the community. Anyone can come in on Saturdays and fill a bag with fresh food and produce from local farmers for $10.
“This is literally the dollar store but for produce,” Sharif said.
Even though Sweet Valley Harvest Barn won’t start advertising until January, Sharif is already getting dozens of orders.
Sharif quietly opened the grocery store’s doors the first weekend of December, relying on word of mouth to spread the word about the store to those in need. On the store’s first Saturday open, she was shocked at the turnout, with nearly 55 people showing up.
On Dec. 11, a few days before the store’s second Saturday open, she already had 60 advance orders.
“If we’re getting 50 people a week and it’s just word of mouth, I can only imagine the need,” Sharif said.
Her customers come from all walks of life, including families, single parents and seniors. They come from as far as Crawford County and towns just outside of Columbus, all seeking access to fresh, affordable food.
Food insecurity is a problem across Middle Georgia. According to United Way of Central Georgia, about 17.7% of residents, or nearly 96,000 people, struggle to feed themselves each day. In addition to measuring hunger, food insecurity also considers whether people have access to healthy food and a balanced diet.
Despite Peach County’s economy largely depending on agriculture, it exports more food than it brings in. This means that the people of Peach County may not be able to access the fruits, vegetables and meat they help produce, Sharif said.
Much of this has to do with the way large grocery store chains and modern food distribution systems operate, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.
Large grocery stores that offer fresh produce tend to set up in wealthier neighborhoods. Much of the fresh produce harvested is sent to those stores, while stores in poor areas have low quality produce, if they even sell it at all.
This system leaves places like Fort Valley — where more than 30% of people live in poverty and the median household income is less than $40,000 a year, according to U.S. Census data — high and dry.
“We produce a lot of food and yet somehow that food doesn’t reach our tables,” Sharif said.
The Sweet Valley Harvest Barn seeks to change that.
As part of her work as a public health researcher, Sharif said she’s traveled to numerous countries around the world including South Africa, Ghana, Namibia, France and Spain. There, she saw poor and rural neighborhoods relying on small, locally owned grocery stores that offered healthier food at lower prices. This inspired her to pursue a similar concept at home.
“Where there isn’t a large store there’s the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker,” Sharif said. “What that does is it allows the community to keep ownership of what they actually produce.”
Sharif said that while she came up with the idea and hosts it on her property, she’s had a lot of help from friends, neighbors and community members.
To keep the store stocked, Sharif partners with farmers, ranchers and distributors from around the county, many of whom she met through her work at FVSU. Other community members volunteered to help run the store alongside her and her two sons.
When Sharif noticed seniors struggling to carry their groceries, she sought the help of friends and neighbors on Facebook, who raised hundreds of dollars for Sharif to purchase a set of four grocery carts. She unveiled them during the store’s second weekend open.
“This is just my idea, but it’s the community who owns the store,” Sharif said.
Despite the Sweet Valley Harvest Barn having only been open for a few weeks, Sharif said its impact is tangible.
After the store’s first weekend open, Sharif asked customers for feedback. She said she got countless messages from shoppers thrilled to be able to afford produce, and who raved about how fresh their food was.
“Someone emailed me and said, ‘This is three days later, I’m cutting into (the produce), and it smells like it just came off the truck,’” Sharif said.
Sharif already has a head full of ideas for the store. Her contractor is coming in to replace the cinder blocks with a stable set of stairs, and she said she’s in talks with farms and businesses around Peach County about adding spices, rice and flour to the store to expand shoppers’ selection.
She also hopes to use her platform as a researcher and educator to showcase the Sweet Valley Harvest Barn, and inspire others to take similar measures to combat food insecurity.
“It’s been an amazing ride so far,” Sharif said. “I hope that other farmers will go ahead and replicate it.”
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Macon Telegraph.
