The announcement of John Winger’s retirement from the grocery store business left one organization in Sheffield concerned. For over 80 years, the Winger family had operated Sheffield’s Royal Super Mart, the only full service grocery for miles.
With no one to take over the store and run operations, the 850 residents in Sheffield would have no option but to travel several miles for food. That posed a problem for Cornerstone Community Wellness and especially for its director, Elizabeth Pratt.
“Our mission would have been more difficult to achieve if the grocery store went away,” said Pratt.
Pratt is a former Kewanee resident. She graduated from the Kewanee School District in 2002. She married Sheffield native Tim Pratt, and the couple moved away and lived a short time in Davenport. But it wasn’t long before they settled back into life in Sheffield.
“He always knew that he wanted to serve his community,” Pratt said of her husband.
Her employer, Cornerstone Community Wellness is a nonprofit with the mission to curate opportunities for the community to grow in physical, emotional and spiritual health. The holistic approach to health and wellness is designed to champion the people of Sheffield in pursuing peace, power and prosperity. The organization offers the residents of Sheffield services such as a fitness center, child care, support groups and Bible studies.
Pratt said that when she learned of Winger’s retirement plans from the grocery store business, she began to research what happens to small rural areas that lose their grocery store. What she learned troubled her. Pratt feared that if Sheffield became a food desert, not only would the health of the community suffer but the economy, as well.
CCW, under Pratt’s direction, began exploring the idea of purchasing the store. The research took months, she said, but a deal was reached and after the sale was finalized, CCW closed down the store for about nine months for renovations.
The decision was made to keep the same name for the new store in honor of the foundation laid by the Winger Family, and the new Royal Super Mart opened its doors in August of this year.
The process has been a learning curve, said Pratt, whose background is in nursing and public health and not retail.
“Food retail is everything I hoped it wouldn’t be,” she said.
But CCW hired a store manager, Amanda Fox, who had many years of retail experience with a big box store.
They have also reached out for guidance with business planning and budgets to organizations such as the Illinois Small Business Development Center.
The Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, specifically Sean Park, provided them with a wealth of information. Park specializes in rural grocery stores, she said, and helped choose a business model.
The store operates as a social enterprise.
“The long term plan is not for our store to need donations,” but for now, it’s required, she said.
They received donations and grants from Ameren, individuals, and local agricultural businesses. The initial goal was to raise $545,000. As of last week, $535,000 had been raised.
It wasn’t just an impending food desert that led to the decision to open the rural store. Pratt said the pandemic made the organization rethink priorities and focus on the needs of the community. With the lock down, services went online, and the social restrictions were difficult for many people’s health and well-being, she said.
Not only does a local supermarket provide necessary food and nutrition for the community, but it is a great place for community members to socialize.
“It’s one of those spaces where everyone can go and bump into each other and catch up,” said Pratt.
And it’s not unusual for people to see old friends in the aisles. “It’s great hearing laughter and people say, ‘I haven’t seen you for so long,’” she said. “That’s the stuff that’s hard to measure.”
Economically, a town without a grocery store also suffers, she said. People with the resources to shop in other towns often spend money in those towns on items they might normally purchase from a local vendor.
“Businesses can start closing in the midst of a food desert,” she said.
When they first started planning the reopening, many residents assumed that CCW would open a health food store, but Pratt said the plan was to open a sustainable market, and that means offering foods that a majority of the town would buy. Royal Super Mart is a full-service store and sells produce, dairy, meat, frozen and grocery items and some general merchandise as well.
“We do carry some gluten-free items, but I believe in the dignity of choice,” said Pratt.
They do try to offer healthy options, and have increased their fresh produce selection.
“Over time, I do want to give people more resources, more things in the future, that would fit in with the goal of whole-person health,” she said.
The store has seven employees, two of which reside in Sheffield. The other employees live within a 10-mile radius, providing the operation with a community feel. And the community has responded positively to the reopening, Pratt said. The feedback on both the pricing and the variety has been good.
“We try to keep our prices as low as possible but it’s hard to compete with the big box stores,” she said, adding that inflation made pricing difficult.
Cornerstone is still raising funds for the operation, something that Pratt understands seems odd.
“People aren’t used to donating to a grocery store. Our goal is that it will sustain itself.”
Those wishing to donate to the cause can go online to the CCW website. On the website, people can purchase merchandise or make a tax deductible donation.
Pratt’s leadership and determination in resolving her community’s problem has attracted attention and she’s been featured in several articles and even appeared on a NBC news television spot, but she won’t take all of the credit for the outcome.
Many people in Sheffield had a hand in the project, she said. Her dad, Tim Ouart, even came out of retirement to act as project manager for the renovations.
“A lot of people volunteered,” she said. “So many people were willing to help. Without that, I don’t think we could have opened the grocery store.”
So far, business has been good and she believes that the grocery store is essential in keeping the community healthy and happy. But she admits there’s still much to do and learn.
“Sales have been good but there is still a learning curve. I’m kind of scrappy when it comes to seeking out experts who know the things that I don’t know,” she said.
