Murfreesboro 'food desert' creates barriers to fresh food for residents after Kroger closes

Many families enjoy shopping at nearby grocery stores. Others face "food desert" conditions because they travel farther to buy food, sometimes without transportation.

Neighbors who live near the closed Kroger store in Murfreesboro, for example, reside in what qualifies as a food desert because they lack access to healthy affordable food within walking distance of their homes, said Janet Colson, a nutrition professor at Middle Tennessee State University.

“People would walk here every day just to pick up their groceries," said Colson, who used to be a regular shopper at the closed Kroger on Middle Tennessee Boulevard between Bradyville Pike and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. "They didn’t have a car. But they would come in every day and pick up fresh food and take it back home.

"This area is really suffering because of it."

The closed Kroger served many nearby families who'd didn't have access to a car. Now the neighbors must travel 2 miles to shop at a grocery store that provides a significant offering of fruits, vegetables and other healthy foods at affordable prices, Colson said.

Fast-growing Murfreesboro and Rutherford County have many other areas attracting grocery stores, including Hy-Vee stores from an Iowa chain planned for Memorial Boulevard and Haynes Drive on the northside of the city and New Salem Highway and Barfield Road on the southwest side.

A yet-identified national retailer also is planning to build a specialty grocery store at the southwest corner of Medical Center Parkway and Robert Rose Drive in Murfreesboro's thriving Gateway area off Interstate 24.

The yet-identified 13,050-square-foot store would be part of the Murfreesboro-based TDK mixed residential and commercial plans for the company's headquarters, at least 12,000 square feet of "Class A" office space, 232 apartments, more than 14,000 square feet of bottom-floor retail and restaurant space, and a future road that connects Robert Rose Boulevard to The Avenue Murfreesboro shopping center, said Ross Bradley, vice president of development for TDK.

Lack of options in central Murfreesboro

The other grocery stores in the fast-growing Murfreesboro areas, however, are not within walking distance for the neighbors without cars who lost their closed Kroger, Colson said. The groceries available with healthy food options on Rutherford Boulevard either east at the Walmart Supercenter or south at the Publix store are about 2 miles away from the closed Kroger.

“It’s a very dangerous walk," Colson said.

Prior to the Kroger closing, the national retailer had announced plans in 2015 to relocate the store to a larger future store the company planned to build at the nearby Mercury Plaza shopping center. However, the Cincinnati-based company by 2019 cancelled the larger store plan and then closed the existing Kroger on Middle Tennessee Boulevard by 2021.

Grocery store proposal canceled: Kroger won't build new store at Mercury Plaza in Murfreesboro, spokeswoman says

Food deserts can contribute to diet-related illness

The closed Kroger had served a neighborhood that fits the description of what the U.S. Department of Agriculture describes as a food desert, according to an article on the federal agency's webpage by Michele Ver Ploeg, David Nulph, and Ryan Williams. These neighborhoods are low-income communities in the U.S. that lack stores that sell healthy and affordable food. The lack of store access in these communities may contribute to poor diet, obesity and other diet-related illness, the article said.

Other neighborhoods have lost grocery stores in Rutherford County, including a Publix and an Albertsons once located off Memorial Boulevard in the central Murfreesboro area before both spaces were converted to gym businesses.

Fitness business to fill old Kroger location

A Trufit Athletic Clubs business will be taking over the space vacated by the closed Kroger Store.

Murfreesboro City Council member Kirt Wade hopes the government can attract a grocery store to the area to revitalize both historic downtown and nearby neighborhoods.

"Every neighborhood deserves a grocery store," Wade said. "We're trying to make sure we put a quality grocery store in this area. It's a food desert. That disenfranchises the people that live there."

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City hopes revitalization will attract grocery store

Grocery store retailers are looking at rooftop demographic data to determine if there's an unmet demand, said Sam Huddleston, an assistant city manager for the Murfreesboro government.

The city completed two studies around 2017 of the downtown Historic Bottoms and Highland Avenue areas that showed around 1,200 households with an unmet demand-not far from the closed Kroger, Huddleston said.

One goal is for city neighborhoods to be within a quarter of a mile of walkable services such as a grocery store, Huddleston said.

City leaders also must factor that grocery store business models have changed, such as people ordering food online in advance before pulling into parking lots to collect purchased products, Huddleston said.

Murfreesboro officials such as Huddleston and Councilman Wade hope planned projects will revitalize downtown and nearby neighborhoods.

These projects include the private Keystone mixed commercial and residential development that will surround Murfreesboro City Hall and the Linebaugh Library in the downtown area. The Keystone developers plan to build 239 apartments, up to 100 condos, a hotel, bottom-floor retail spaces and 780 parking spaces with most in garages.

Wade joined the majority of the City Council in supporting the Keystone project.

"We want a vibrant downtown," Wade said.

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'This area is coming back'

Wade asked city staff to search for a grocery store to replace the closed Kroger soon after proposing that Murfreesboro honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by renaming the former Mercury Boulevard to the national civil rights leader's name.

"This area is coming back, but it needs to come back with a grocery store," Wade said. "All this is going to be revitalized soon."

A nearby quality grocery store is part of providing residents with a quality of life, Wade said.

A grocery store to replace the closed Kroger also will benefit an MTSU campus that's about a mile from the closed Kroger, Wade said.

Honoring civil rights leader's legacy: Murfreesboro's Mercury Blvd. will be renamed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard

MTSU nutrition classes lose charge account from closed Kroger

MTSU nutrition professor Colson recalled the university had a charge account with the nearby Kroger prior to closing that allowed her and other professors to obtain food and other products needed for instruction. Her department secretary now must travel with her to another grocery store to make the purchases.

"So it is a really big inconvenience for me personally and also MTSU," said Colson, whose family previously lived within walking distance of the closed Kroger for about 10 years.

Colson even after moving said she continued to shop at the closed Kroger between commuting to and from MTSU.

"Twice a day I would drive by this grocery store," Colson said. "I still drive by it. It was so nice. I could swing in and pick up my lunch. And then on the way home, I could swing in and pick up other things."

Smaller convenience stores nearby don't have the same nutritional variety as a fully-stocked grocery store for nearby residents, she said.

"So when you walk up to a corner convenience store, you may have apples and bananas there, but there’s no other types of produce," Colson said. "And the type of dairy is very limited. Also, you are going to be paying about twice as much as if you went to a full-service grocery store."

Corner convenience stores and discount grocery stores also don't typically offer healthier skimmed milk, the nutritional Greek yogurt that Colson said she likes and 100% whole wheat bread.

"They have white bread or they have this bread that looks brown, but they put a little dye in it to make it look brown, and they call it wheat," Colson said. "But again, it’s not quality foods that we typically associate with a healthy diet."

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City plans to widen Bradyville Pike near closed Kroger

The city has road improvement plans near the closed Kroger, which would create better access to the area. The Murfreesboro government plans to widen the two-lane Bradyville Pike to three lanes with sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides, and curb and gutter for underground drainage. The Bradyville project is expected to start by fall 2024 and be completed by summer 2027.

A new grocery store can provide jobs and entice other businesses to open in the same shopping center or nearby, Wade said.

Transportation: Murfreesboro plans $260M in road projects, including Thompson Lane, Bradyville Pike

Local pastor worries about revitalization leading to gentrification

The closed Kroger is about a mile from the First Baptist Church on East Castle Street, where James Milton McCarroll Jr. has served as the pastor for 17 years. He also described the neighborhood that lost the grocery store as being a "food desert."

Although the pastor agrees that a replacement grocery store is needed, McCarroll worries about the city's revitalization efforts causing gentrification of nearby neighborhoods by making them unaffordable for the existing residents. He witnessed gentrification taking place at the home of his parents in Nashville.

Many generations of families who lived in his parents' neighborhood could no longer afford to remain as Nashville's thriving downtown area expanded outward.

McCarroll wants to see Murfreesboro revitalization efforts include the city helping people relocate to affordable homes near services, such as grocery stores.

The demographics come down to renters who face rising housing prices v. home owners who look to protect their properties, the pastor said.

City leaders should be people-centric for loyal residents rather than investor-centric for investors, who may look to keep rent prices high until the bubble bursts, the pastor said.

"You have generations of people who have supported the city through their tax payments," McCarroll said. "It begins with housing. Make sure it's affordable for everyone."

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Wade wants to attract affordable housing and grocery store

Wade said he agreed with the pastor's concerns about affordable housing.

"Gentrification is going on everywhere," Wade said. "That's a national problem."

Wade suggested the government work with the Murfreesboro Housing Authority and consider additional property tax relief to prevent people from moving because they could no longer afford to keep their homes.

City leaders also should work with developers to find a solutions to attract affordable housing, jobs with decent wages and grocery stores that are within walking distance, "so gentrification doesn't run out the people who live in those neighborhoods," Wade said.

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Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Murfreesboro 'food desert' creates barriers after Kroger closes