JewellMrktGrdOpening

03 AUGUST 2020 - JEWELL, IOWA: Employees stock the dairy section of the Jewell Market. The only grocery store in Jewell, a small community in central Iowa, closed in 2019. It served four communities within a 20 mile radius of Jewell. Some of the town's residents created a cooperative to reopen the store. They sold shares to the co-op and held fundraisers through the spring. Organizers raised about $225,000 and bought the store, which had its "soft opening" July 8. The store celebrated its official reopening Monday August 3. Before the reopening, Jewell had been a "food desert" for seven months. The USDA defines rural food deserts as having at least 500 people in a census tract living 10 miles from a large grocery store or supermarket. There is a convenience store in Jewell, but it sells mostly heavily processed, unhealthy snack foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt. PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ

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Filename: JewellMrktGrdOpening025.jpg
Copyright: © 2020 John Kurtz
Image Size: 6240x4160 / 12.7MB; 080320 Economy Food Desert Food Insecurity FoodDesert Grand Opening Grocery Store Iowa Jewell Ribbon Cutting Rural ZUMA
Contained in galleries: Upper Midwest of the US

03 AUGUST 2020 - JEWELL, IOWA: Employees stock the dairy section of the Jewell Market. The only grocery store in Jewell, a small community in central Iowa, closed in 2019. It served four communities within a 20 mile radius of Jewell. Some of the town's residents created a cooperative to reopen the store. They sold shares to the co-op and held fundraisers through the spring. Organizers raised about $225,000 and bought the store, which had its "soft opening" July 8. The store celebrated its official reopening Monday August 3. Before the reopening, Jewell had been a "food desert" for seven months. The USDA defines rural food deserts as having at least 500 people in a census tract living 10 miles from a large grocery store or supermarket. There is a convenience store in Jewell, but it sells mostly heavily processed, unhealthy snack foods that are high in fat, sugar, and salt. PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ