East Chattanooga is an area so barren of healthy grocery options that the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department once called it a "food desert."
Now the only store that sold fresh fruit and vegetables there has closed, leaving residents seeking a new oasis.
Scarbrough's Produce opened in June, but closed in August. Local businessman J.T. McDaniel, who financed the store operated by Michael Scarbrough, blamed "internal problems" for the shuttering.
Sherita Alexander exits Scarbrough's Produce on East Third Street in this July 1 photo. The produce store closed in August."It broke my heart," McDaniel said. "People were coming food stamps were up and cash was following."
It was the only store in the area to include walls and shelves lined with produce - watermelon, green beans, squash, okra, cucumbers, peaches and even locally grown peppers. The store also included boxed and canned foods, cereal, milk, eggs and bread.
The store benefited residents without cars because people could walk to get healthy food, sparing them the cost and inconvenience of paying taxi fare to get to a store outside the area.
Amy Jones of Orchard Knob is 73. She got in the habit of visiting the store each week to pick up vegetables like cabbage and corn.
"You didn't have to go that far," she said. "And they were adding stuff every week. He was telling us they were going to have a deli."
Otherwise, the nearest store for Jones, who lives in Orchard Knob, is the East 23rd Street Bi-Lo about 2 miles away.
Orchard Knob, Churchville, Glenwood and Bushtown are the East Chattanooga communities within walking distance of the store.
McDaniel said he hopes to find someone who'll consider reopening the grocery, which is already equipped with a new cash register, shelves and refrigerators.
The facility is one of several buildings along East Third Street and Dodson Avenue that 72-year-old McDaniel wants to sell before he retires, but he's especially interested in finding a grocer.
"I can buy the product," he said. "I need them to bring in their people to run it."
In the meantime, less healthy convenience foods are what the community has turned to.
Site of the former E. 3rd St. Market. "Gas stations are making a killing off of this fried chicken," said James Moreland, president of the Avondale Neighborhood Association. "A lot of people can't get to greens and beans, so they're eating a lot of fried chicken."
City Councilman Yusuf Hakeem has called East Chattanooga the worst food desert in the state. Obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes are among the preventable, diet-related illnesses disproportionately plaguing the community.
Some 68 percent of adults in East Chattanooga were overweight in 2010, compared to 60 percent of adults overweight in Hamilton County, according to local health department statistics.
Before Scarbrough's Produce opened, Hakeem and a committee of East Chattanooga residents pushed to get a grocery store on the corner of Glass Street and Dodson Avenue.
Chaudry S. Ali, owner of S&L Enterprises Inc., purchased the former Sunny Town property earlier this year. S&L Enterprises also owns Rogers Super Market on East Main Street.
Hakeem asked city officials for tax incentives for the store, but officials said it is unlikely any would be offered beyond what is available to every other small business in Chattanooga.
Nevertheless, Hakeem said Thursday that Ali "appears" committed to opening the store before the end of the year.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at 423-757-6431 or yputman@timesfreepress.com.