Jeannine Johansen remembers the halcyon days of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, when so many of its steep streets were punctuated by grocery stores: Almacs, A&P, Piggly Wiggly and Star Market. In the blizzard of 1978, “everybody went to Fernandes [Produce] because Stop & Shop was too far, and all the roads were closed, so we had to walk”, said the native Woonsocketer.
These days, Woonsocket is down to one full-service supermarket: a solitary Price Rite serving 45,000 residents, 37% of them food insecure, perched at the top of a hill in a strip mall at the edge of the city. A nearby Dollar General offers frozen meat and packaged foods. Locals with cars (18% of Woonsocket residents have no vehicle) might travel farther afield, beyond Woonsocket’s borders, to Shaw’s or Aldi in search of deals.
