LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – For some, running to the store to grab a gallon of milk or a quick ingredient for dinner can be easy.
However, for many who live near Nellis and Craig, it used to be a long commute to the nearest grocery store. The After Market opened in the area last year when the need was very evident.
When FOX5 paid the market a visit on Tuesday morning, it was a packed house.
“The first hour, it’s been about a hundred people,” Pastor Dewayne McCoy, owner of the After Market said.
The area has been considered a food desert for years.
“The nearest grocery store is five miles away so people didn’t have a place to shop,” Mccoy said.
With nowhere to shop, there were families having trouble with food accessibility on top of food insecurity.
“It’s heartbreaking to see the need, but the impact we are making is making a change,” McCoy said.
McCoy said he has seen the need increase by about 50% in just the last few months of being open.
Customers don’t just make use of the market, but the other half, which is a food pantry.
“They are getting a hand up instead of a hand down,” McCoy said.
McCoy said he gets his food donated from Three Square Food Bank or buys from wholesalers, but it gets so busy that he restocks the shelves every night.
“It is so convenient for us,” said a customer who did not want to be identified.
The customer said she used to spend $200 every month on rideshares just to go to the nearest store.
“It means better prices and convenience. I don’t have to spend so much just to get us good food,” the customer said.
Other customers like Brooks Crittenton say he would have to take the bus.
“It would take you an hour and a half to grab a gallon of milk,” Crittenton said.
McCoy tells FOX5 seeing how much of a need there is for grocery stores in various neighborhoods, he hopes to expand his market.
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