MEMPHIS, Tenn — In 2022, people living in Memphis’s Klondike neighborhood were without a grocery store.
It became the latest Bluff City community without nearby access to fresh groceries, known as a food desert.
As of 2023, the Works, Inc. Mobile Grocer has helped feed thousands of families, traveling to about 10 different North Memphis neighborhoods each week.
“It saves me from going extra miles to the grocery store to get my vegetables and produce,” said life-long Klondike resident Barbara Johnson-Gavalas.
Community development nonprofit the Works launched the Mobile Grocer in 2022. The mini supermarket inside a trailer travels throughout North Memphis, especially neighborhoods without one nearby.
“This is truly a desert area,” Johnson-Gavalas said.
The low-cost grocery store on wheels gives people in lower income areas access to healthier foods.
“We’ve expanded food access to thousands of families just based on the number of neighborhoods we’re going to,” said the Works CEO Roshun Austin.
In honor of its Mobile Grocer's first anniversary, the Works held a celebration Thursday in Klondike, which drew in multiple first-time customers.
“I found greens and eggs and pretty good deals, too,” said Memphis resident Evelyn Cunningham.
Others can’t imagine the neighborhood without it.
“(I come here) basically every week,” Johnson-Gavalas said laughing.
Memphis City Councilmember Michalyn Easter-Thomas is hopeful the mobile grocery store is just a start in also bringing a full-service grocery store to North Memphis.
“The Mobile Grocer is really doing the groundwork now to show why having a grocery store in North Memphis is vital,” she says.
Austin said she wants to expand the Mobile Grocer’s reach, but they will need help.
“There’s a lot of demand for the Mobile Grocer, unfortunately,” she said. “We can’t meet the demand that Memphis needs today, but maybe we can partner with someone else.”