With the closing of the Gray Street HEB and the IGA on Rancier Rd in 2019, the downtown and northern areas of Killeen, TX have been left with what is known as a food desert. Residents in these areas without transportation have been left to depend on corner stores for their grocery needs; stores that do not offer fresh food and have limited healthy options. All the while beauty supply chains, and fast food restaurants thrive in these areas. 

{About 23.5 million people in the United States live in food deserts, with most being found in low income communities. Food deserts are areas where supermarkets or grocery stores that sell healthy foods aren’t at the community’s disposal. Food deserts are a very prevalent problem in America, and unjustly affects low income people of color. }

Recently, there has been movement in the 22,000 sq. ft area formerly occupied by IGA Foodliner. Many residents, hopeful for another grocery store, were disheartened to discover that the new giant in town is ANOTHER beauty supply chain.

What this area truly needs is a good food source, not another establishment that preys on the black community and black dollars. (And doesn't bother correct the incorrect assumption that they are black owned...which they are not.)

There are very few, if any, lots in this well established part of town that can accommodate a new build for a grocery store, and even fewer, if any, suitable spaces that can be renovated for that purpose; which is why this space, that does me et certain criteria, is so critical. Because of this, we are asking that as a community, we stand together and insist that this space be reserved for a grocery store. We will not spend our collective dollar in this store, we will pursue grocery chains to consider the space, and we will continue to petition the city for a solution to this very serious problem.