![]() ![]() Nancy moved into her childhood home after her parents’ death, taking over payments on a reverse mortgage. One of those homeowners is Nancy Thompson, a 47-year-old single mother in a suburb of Pittsburgh. The popular program, launched in 1983 and managed by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA), has saved thousands of homeowners from losing their homes to foreclosure. In 2012, TRF played a critical role helping a group of housing advocates revive Pennsylvania’s widely successful Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program - better known as HEMAP. “Fare & Square has the potential to transform people’s thinking so that people are more attracted to healthy diets,” he said. Together, the food and the skills may encourage people to revive the home cooking and family mealtimes that have often been abandoned by those who work two or three jobs to make ends meet, he said. He’s hoping that the new supermarket will help people eat more healthfully, not only by making better food available but also by offering tips on how to prepare it. Once Fare & Square opens, he plans to try to lose another 25 pounds and reach his target weight. Now, at 37, he has lost 60 pounds by cutting out processed foods, exercising, and cooking for himself. Primeaux himself became a convert to a healthy diet about two years ago when he was dangerously overweight. “With the realization of this initiative, the residents of Chester will now have access to affordable and nutritious food right around the corner.” “We could not open Fare & Square in Chester without the help of our countless partners in this project, including TRF who helped with the financing of the project,” said Clark. The project obtained financing from TRF and the Nonprofit Finance Fund using New Markets Tax Credits, a federal program to incentivize equity investment in low-income areas. In an effort to attract shoppers who have few other options, the new supermarket will offer fresh foods at competitive prices. People often team up for shopping trips to supermarkets in other towns, especially at times when food stamps are sent out to Chester’s many welfare recipients, Primeaux said. ![]() ![]() For his neighbors who don’t have cars, getting to the market requires taking one or two buses in a trip that takes at least half an hour, he said. “Not to have something as simple as a supermarket in your area, it robs people of a sense of dignity,” Primeaux said.įor years, Primeaux has had to drive about five miles from his home on the east side of Chester to a supermarket in Brookhaven to shop for groceries. Primeaux hopes the market will also help residents feel better about a city where supermarket chains have been scared off by a high crime rate, and where residents have been forced to travel miles to buy food at supermarkets in other communities. “We’ve worked on this concept for years, and we are thrilled to see it coming to fruition to help the residents of Chester.” “Food access is a growing and complex problem across the country and in the Delaware Valley, and one that requires a complex solution,” said Bill Clark, president and executive director of Philabundance. “Not to have something as simple as a supermarket in your area, it robs people of a sense of dignity.” ![]()
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