by Jeff Delp
We are approaching the one year anniversary of Carver Market’s grand opening in Historic South Atlanta. It’s been an amazing experience watching the transformation from a food desert to a neighborhood market that is a place of life and health in the community.
In February, we had the honor of hosting Chef G Garvin, a celebrity chef, who prepared nutritious, tasty dishes with ingredients all found in the Carver Market! He cooked jambalaya, veggie-packed ground turkey, baked chicken, kale salad, and peach cobbler. Neighbors stopped by all afternoon to taste samples, take a photo with Chef Garvin, or ask him to autograph his cookbook. In fact, this event drew such crowds that it was our busiest day since we’ve opened! We’re excited for additional Chef demos that we will be hosting this spring.
Chef Garvin’s appearance was a kick-off for a current initiative for customers using Food Stamps – or EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer). Thanks to a partnership with Georgia Food Oasis and The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, we are able to offer double benefits for produce purchases on Thursdays from February through May. In the first three Thursdays we hosted these events, sales of produce more than doubled our typical average!
We’ve been promoting healthy choices at the Carver Market in other ways, too. Working with the Emory Urban Health Initiative and Food Oasis, we now have labels throughout the store to help customers identify healthy food choices. We’ve also extended our prepared food offerings by selling cut fruit and yogurt parfait with Pure Bliss granola. These products are healthy alternatives for a quick breakfast or lunch.
The Carver Market continues to adjust our inventory to meet customer needs while also seeking to find local, nutritious products. In February, we began offering Georgia Grown grass fed meat from Hunter Cattle Company. Neighbors have been enjoying the availability of quality meat options in our store.
Thank you for your continued support of Carver Neighborhood Market. It’s a joy to bring new products into our community after so many decades of being by-passed by traditional retailers. We are continuing to build our customer base, grow our team, and fulfill our purpose in Historic South Atlanta. You are terrific partners in this journey, and we are so grateful!
