Saturday, 100 families received $10 vouchers from First National Bank of Central Texas to be spent at Jubilee Food Market in Waco.
Families started lining up at the grocery store just after 11 a.m. As they entered the store they were given the vouchers which they could apply immediately to their purchases. Dan Ingham, Vice President at The First National Bank, said idea behind the event is get an infusion of cash at the local business.
"These locally owned businesses are the lifeblood so it's a no brainier to get behind them," he said.
Jubilee Food Market serves a special purpose in the community.
"It's a unique business, not many places like this in the world probably. They started a grocery store from scratch in a neighborhood that was a food desert for so long so getting behind it was awesome," Ingham said.
The grocery store is in a neighborhood of Waco, known as a food desert, meaning residents are further from accessing a wide variety of nutritious foods. When Jubilee opened in December, they helped alleviate that problem. Jubilee Store Manager, Darrell Wickert, their location has helped many in the area, "considering a lot of these people walk or don't have transportation this is a convenience for them."
Wicker hopes that the store's recent SNAP benefits approval will also help serve more people in the area.
"This is a great, great help to the store because most of the people in the area receive that so that should increase our business."
Wicker also said they have submitted the paperwork for WIC benefits which may be approved as soon as next month.
In addition to expanding methods of payments, in the coming months the store is looking to expand their selection. Currently, many of the products are sourced locally in spring they are hoping to expand to growing and selling local produce.
Wicker said it's all in the plan of strengthening the community, "If you haven't known Mission Waco, it's a great organization to work for. They have been building this area of town little by little and this is one of the steps."
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