CHEROKEE-Peoples Piggly Wiggly in the town of Cherokee received $50,000 to renovate and upgrade equipment to reopen their grocery store through the first grants from the Alabama Healthy Food Financing Act . The need for the store is in response to the closing of the town’s only grocery store in 2017, requiring residents to travel about 40 miles round-trip to obtain a full-line of groceries including fruits, vegetables and meats. Tracy Wix who also owns Peoples Drug and Variety opened the old Cherokee Piggly Wiggly in March with the help of State Representative Johnny Mack Morrow.
Alabama State Representative Johnny Mack Morrow was responsible for putting all of the State elements together to facilitate securing the funds to re-open the Peoples Piggly Wiggly which was bought by Wix . Morrow told the Quad-Cities Daily, “It’s really important for communities to have access to fresh food and vegetables. Piggly Wiggly was the only supermarket within 16 miles of Cherokee. The loss of this would have created a food desert in this small community. And we just can’t have that. I’m glad that we were able to put together the necessary elements to preserve this vital resource for Cherokee.”
“Better access to healthy foods in underserved communities will help children develop properly, help senior citizens stay healthy and help reduce long-term health-care costs for those that opt for this type of diet over eating unhealthy foods,” Governor Ivey said. “I am pleased to support these projects and encouraged that these grants will expand access to fresh, healthy foods in several communities.”
