Heavenly Square Grocery Fills Gap in Illinois Food Desert

Pastor opens low-cost grocery store to provide community access to healthy food

When you walk into Heavenly Square Grocery in Danville, Illinois, you’ll notice three things: it’s clean, everyone is friendly, and the food is priced fairly.

Photos courtesy of Heavenly Store Grocery

“We are the friendliest grocery store in Danville,” says General Manager Marcia Keys. “Our mission statement is to provide customers discounted prices, a clean store, and fast and friendly customer service.”

Heavenly Grocery opened its doors this past spring, on May 1, in a part of Vermilion County that’s considered a food desert.

“There are 11,000 people in a 2-mile radius of our location, and they have no access to healthy food,” says Pastor Thomas Miller, pastor of New Life Church of Faith, which owns the shopping center where Heavenly Square Grocery is located. “The purpose for this location was that we saw a big need to support the community.”

The grocery store was previously a Save-A-Lot that closed in 2018. Since then, local residents on the east side did not have access to groceries, Keys says.

It was almost five years ago that Keys says Miller reached out to her, asking her to take lead on the project. She agreed, but when they visited the old Save-A-Lot location, they were shocked by the state of the building.

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“I went in there and thought, who is going to clean this?” Keys said. Turns out, Keys—who has 40 years experience in management and food services, but zero in grocery store management—loves a good challenge.

After hiring a cleaning company who didn’t do their job, Keys threw her own sweat equity into the project. “My sister and I got on our hands and knees and laid on our bellies and scrubbed where you could not reach,” Keys laughed. “It took us four months but we got it clean and it looks marvelous!”

Heavenly Square Grocery has been more than four years in the making, a collaboration between Miller, Keys, and many others—including Timothy Meneely, medical director of Carle Medical Office Center at The Riverfront in Danville. He headed up the task force seeking a grant from the state and federal government.

Illinois has 102 counties and Vermilion County ranks at 100 in the state for health outcomes, Meneely said. “We see a high level of cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and a lot of that we draw back to unhealthy lifestyle,” he said.

Meneely has been taking care of the community in Vermillion County since the 1980s, studying the social drivers and determinants of health. “Other than healthcare, another one of those drivers is healthy access to food,” he said. “The idea is to make it easier to access decent food for the people who need it most.”

In addition to the grocery store, Meneely said, there is now a community garden, a mobile market that drives through main sections of the county, and a kids program that educates about health and diet.

In order to make Heavenly Square Grocery a reality, Meneely ensured the grant funding stayed on track. It was awarded $5 million through the Vermilion County Community Health Collaborative.

The grant Heavenly Square Grocery received was required to be used for a for-profit endeavor, Miller said, adding that while his name is on the paperwork as owner of Heavenly Square Grocery, New Life Church of Faith owns the shopping Center.

“Right now since we are just starting out we are taking all the sales and reinvesting them right back into the store,” Miller said, adding that the sales are covering basic needs like power, insurance and sewage. “We have a long way to go to make a profit. Our sales have increased since we got SNAP approval in the last month or so.”

Keys says the whole process has been a learning curve—even things like pricing food. In the beginning, pricing seemed too high. She worked with distributors to get Heavenly Square Grocery re-zoned, so pricing was lowered appropriately for the area’s needs.

The grocery store also offers carry-out for shoppers, which is not available widely in Danville. Starting this month, it also launched a personalized shopping program.

“Hand us your list and we will go shopping for you,” Keys says. The store provides water and set up a waiting area. Once shopping is complete, shoppers check out and their groceries are taken to their cars. “I think [this] will help a lot of our seniors or the customers who may not be able to walk around the store,” Keys said.

The grocery store is also providing jobs to the area, Meneely notes.

“Rural poverty is often invisible, and it’s hard to know how things are going in a community because it is often so dispersed,” Meneely said. “The grocery store opening May 1 was certainly a watershed moment and we are so impressed with the work they have done.”

Once Heavenly Square Grocery is turning a profit, Miller said he plans to use those funds to open a restaurant or a laundry mat, something that provides support to the community.

“I would love to open a soul-food restaurant,” Miller said. “There is no sit-down restaurant in Danville to enjoy food and fellowship with your family.”

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