DAYTON — This week marks three years since a devastating fire that left part of Dayton without a reliable source for fresh food.
It was back in Nov. 2017, a fire destroyed the Food for Less grocery store along East Third Street. The store was the only nearby grocery store in that East Dayton neighborhood.
“I just remember the smoke – just coming down here seeing the smoke,” said neighbor Ralph Allen.
But long after the smell of smoke subsided (it took many weeks) and the debris cleared (which took months)… neighbors in the area without transportation struggled to put food on the table.
Stacie Pack described her grocery routine of a couple years to News Center 7′s Sean Cudahy.
“You had to sit at the bus stop and wait, go all the way to Kroger (on Smithville Road), get what you need, carry all that, wait for a bus to come back down this way. Or, try to find a ride, and then you’ve got to find gas money to get (the driver) to get a ride,” Pack said.
Today, a new store sits on the site where Food for Less once stood: A Dollar General. Store owners in 2019 told WHIO the store would carry more grocery items than a typical dollar store.
But Pack said it still has not entirely filled the void in that part of the community.
“Everything over there is a whole lot pricier than it was at Food for Less,” she said. “They try to say they’re trying to make that more of a store than a dollar store, but it’s not.”
Allen said the changes set in motion three years ago this week have effectively led to a permanent change in many of his neighbor’s way of life.
“I’d say a lot of people had to make a lot of adjustments and learn different ways of getting around,” he said.
For her part, Pack still is holding out hope for a full-service grocery store.
“Put a store back,” she said. “Simple as that.”
Cox Media Group
