Work underway on southeast Canton grocery and health center
CANTON − Construction started in earnest last month at the future Southeast Community Market and Health Center.
Canton For All People, a community development corporation formed by Crossroads United Methodist Church, is leading the work at 1318 Gonder Ave. SE. StarkFresh and My Community Health Center also will offer their services at the site once it's complete.
Don Ackerman, executive director of Canton For All People, expected construction to be completed around mid-October.
Lemmon Development is a partner of Canton For All People, and the Akron-based Cavanaugh Building Corp. is the general contractor. Ackerman said funding sources include:
$1.3 million from the city of Canton's American Rescue Plan Act funds
$250,000 from the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church
$100,000 from the Hoover Foundation
$150,000 from the Sisters of Charity
$450,000 total over the course of 10 years from local United Methodist churches
Read more:Canton awards $1.3 million to southeast health center, grocery
Additional financial requests have been made to community foundations. Ackerman said StarkFresh and My Community Health regularly are consulted to ensure the space meets their needs.
"And then we work with the community members themselves to make sure that if they had issues with the project or anything like that, they can contact us," he said.
The Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority transferred the approximately 11,000-square-foot building to the nonprofit last year. It was last used by the YWCA for childcare services more than eight years ago.
Plumbing is being installed in half of the building that will serve as a health clinic operated by My Community Health Center, and the other half has exterior refrigeration and freezer storage for the grocery run by StarkFresh and Canton For All People.
The market received permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to offer both food for purchase and for free in the same location, Ackerman said.
Juan-Paulo "J.P." Afable, chief executive officer of My Community Health Center in Canton, said the health clinic will open with one nurse practitioner, a medical assistant and a receptionist. The center will offer primary care and then, depending on the community needs, potentially women's health and pediatric services.
"It just really depends on whatever the community brings," he said. "We're open to making sure that we get those needs met because the intention is to really make sure that we have a healthy population there."
Afable said the southeast center staff will be hired and trained about three months before the planned opening. The goal is to employ people from the area.
"We want to look like the community," he said. "We want to be part of the community."
There will be seven exam rooms and the potential to have up to four providers, Afable said. My Community Health Center is a nonprofit, federally qualified health center that provides care regardless of a patient's ability to pay.
About 1,600 square feet near the building's entrance is undeveloped. Ackerman said the southeast community advisory board, which is comprised of community stakeholders and meets monthly, will determine its future use.
The board also will help guide any future investment at the building or two acres of land to its north owned by Canton For All People. A portion of the market revenue will go into a designated southeast community fund, Ackerman said.
Reach Kelly at 330-580-8323 or kelly.byer@cantonrep.comOn Twitter: @kbyerREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Work underway on southeast Canton grocery and health center
