Homefull’s new $20 million dollar independent grocery store officially opened on Monday.
It will now be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.
The Dayton-based nonprofit is dedicated to ending homelessness by providing housing, services, advocacy, and education.
With its newly opened grocery store, Homefull said it is moving towards that mission in southwest Dayton.
"We have everything from paper products and pet food to fresh produce and meat and canned goods, baked goods, you know, everything in between that you'd see in a larger traditional grocery store," said John Patterson, chief business development officer for Homefull. "The kitchen and deli is provided hot lunches and dinners every day."
The Gettysburg Grocery serves as the first phase of Homefull’s goal to develop acreage off Gettysburg Avenue.
The site provides a 14,000-square-foot, full-service grocery store with attached Kettering Health medical offices, Ziks Family Pharmacy and a community space.
Ziks pharmacy and the medical offices will open for full capacity by the grand opening next month.
Patterson said the medical offices are expecting to work with as many as 115 patients as soon as Tuesday.
According to Patterson, food is medicine, and this facility will help educate customers on the nutritious choices they offer.
"The dream we had was the doctor working in concert with us, bringing patients over to see food items they need to stay away from, food items they need to concentrate on eating and so forth," he said. "And then having that pharmacy in between as well to really provide medical education."
Karl Leath was shopping at the new store on opening day. He has lived in southwest Dayton for close to nine years and is excited to now have a full-service grocery store just a mile from home.
"Well, they have no grocery around here and we decided let's check it out. It's new, I've seen advertising and it's been forever," he said.
A regional food delivery system is also in the works. Patterson said local farmers, big and small, can come right to the store and provide high-quality goods to give back to the community.
"It either gets sold here, or it's aggregated and becomes part of a larger institutional network where it's sold to," he said. "Like universities and hospitals and things like that within the region of Lexington, Louisville, Columbus, Dayton and Indianapolis."
The building at 811 S. Gettysburg Ave. is part of a 45,000 square-foot facility with office spaces above the store.
"The grocery store, of course, is the anchor and having our offices on top of all of this on the second floor is really the icing on the cake," Patterson said. "We still can provide services for people that come in to any of those other partners but have other needs aside from what they're coming to that particular site to be addressed."
Gettysburg Grocery will have money saving options like a Senior Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program, Produce Perks and a loyalty program.
Patterson said cart prices at the store are comparable to chain grocers.
“I know that's a concern with an independent grocer," he said. "But the fact that we're a nonprofit grocery store and we're able to utilize Homefull’s nonprofit status to help underwrite operational costs should help us keep prices down.”
Paul Harsha, the store's general manager, said the size and cleanliness of the store are points of pride for him and his staff.
"We've gotten a lot of comments from customers about that," he said. "The aisles are wide, the shelves aren't very tall. It's just a very comfortable place to do your grocery shopping."
He said he's been working since September to get the store prepared for its grand opening on Feb. 6.
"Coca Cola promised to send the polar bear and they're going to donate some things to support. Obviously we're in a soft opening right now, so I'm working on just getting everything in place and making sure everything scans, that my staff is trained," he said. "I'm really looking forward to that February 6th being our kind of deadline where if anybody comes in, any kind of audits, anything we're really, really prepared."
Harsha said once the store is fully established, they will also offer classes and other services to help the community with nutrition and cooking.
"Either in like crock pots, nutrition and produce and I just look forward to those things coming," he said. "It'll take us a while to get there. You know we got to get everything in the system and then we'll be ready to add those kind of layers."