Grocery store offers hope in Indy’s Riverside neighborhood (with video)
An Indianapolis neighborhood facing substantial challenges has gotten a big boost from something that might be overlooked elsewhere - the opening of a grocery store. Flanner House opened Cleo’s Bodega on June 20 to provide a “food access hub” in the North West Area, a part of the city described as Indianapolis’ largest food desert. “This is one of the most historic black neighborhoods in the city,” said Torian Jones, a manager at the store. Before Interstate 65 cut through the neighborhood, “There was a whole community, a whole black infrastructure here.” Video: A Cleo's manager talks about the pride of the neighborhood. The city supplied $400,000 in funding to open the store, which will hire people from the neighborhood through the Flanner House Community Center for Working Families Program. Census data shows nearly a third of residents in the area live below the poverty level, and almost half the people within a mile of Flanner House receive food stamp...