After nearly 50 years as a food desert, one of Waterloo’s predominantly black neighborhoods has opened its first grocery store alongside a community center.
After seven years of socioeconomic hurdles, including pushback from groups within Waterloo, the black-owned All-In Grocers and attached Willie Mae Wright Community Center opened this week.
Project leader Rodney Anderson says after all the work, he’s still amazed. “I love it. It looks like Waterloo,” Anderson says, “it feels like Waterloo, and now we’re going to change the culture of Waterloo.”
Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart attended the opening and says the grocery store idea was a long time coming and he sees it as a huge victory for the neighborhood and the community.
“It’s an incredible day for the City of Waterloo and an incredible day for the Walnut neighborhood,” Hart says. “I remember 12 years ago, them wanting a grocery store, and to be here today is such an inspiring vision.”
The community center will hold classes and after-school programs through Waterloo’s 1619 Freedom School Project, which is expected to start by the spring.
(By Grant Winterer, Iowa Public Radio)