WACO, Texas — A nonprofit grocery store in north Waco needs help from the community to make sure it can continue its mission.
Jubilee Food Market was opened three years ago to provide people living on fixed incomes with fresh, low-cost and healthy food-- food that was otherwise inaccessible in the area.
Dorrel said food deserts are the number one hunger problem across America.
"When you're in a low-income neighborhood community and there is not access to affordable or healthy food people have to eat high priced food that’s usually not good food, or they have to walk a couple of miles because of lack of transportation to get that," Dorrell said.
While the store was created with fixed income families in mind, founder Jimmy Dorrell said the store is for the entire community.
"The challenge was there wasn’t anything accessible,” founder Jimmy Dorrell said. “For a store like this to survive, because the price of food has such a small margin, we need the whole community to shop here."
From meats, bread, fresh fruits and vegetables, the Jubilee Food Market has just about everything shoppers need.
To keep the food oasis, Dorrell is encouraging 100 middle-class people to open their wallets and shop at Jubilee once a month.
"We need to continue to find more of them because we'll spend $50, when the neighborhood people will only spend about $10," Dorrell said.
In addition to fresh food, the store also brings jobs to the community.
"All my friends thought I would never get a job in a public place because of my background,” produce manager David Daniels said. “Mission Waco and Jubilee has given me a future. I can see tomorrow."
The store is vital for people like Daniels, who said it's changed his life.
"I say, 'Good morning. Welcome to Jubilee,' and they come back," Daniels said. "That is what we want-- for you to come right back,"
Dorrell said it feels good to do something that really matters. He said community leaders from Dallas, Austin and Houston have come to Waco to see if they can replicate the Jubilee Food Market.
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