Cairo, Illinois, grocery to end 'food desert' next month

Rise Community Market, Cairo, Illinois' first grocery store in seven years, will open at 10 a.m. Friday, June 16, at 3010 Sycamore St., according to the co-op's Facebook page.

As reported March 27 in the Southeast Missourian, Cairo has not had a grocery store within municipal limits in more than seven years, making the city what U.S. Department of Agriculture officials call a "food desert", defined by USDA as "low-income census tracts more than one mile from a supermarket in an urban area and more than 10 miles from a supermarket in rural areas."

Robert Edwards, a grocery veteran who has been employed by the former Indianapolis-based Marsh Foods chain and later by Kroger Supermarket, is the market's general manager.

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