New neighborhood fresh food market will soon open in Lexington food desert
Staff from Black Soil were busy on a recent Tuesday measuring and designing a food display for fresh honey produced by an 18-year-old Louisville beekeeper.
The honey and other locally grown fresh vegetables will soon be available when Farmacy Neighborhood Market, Black Soil’s first fresh foods market, opens June 7.
Farmacy dovetails with Black Soil’s motto of food is medicine. Farmacy also will allow people in the neighborhood “to eat local year-round,” another tenant of the Lexington nonprofit’s mission.
Black Soil connects Kentucky growers to local food markets. It has been working since December 2023, when the group was granted a zone change for the building, to transform the Florence Avenue market into a fresh food hub.
“We will be able to give our customers discounted prices because of our long-standing relationships with our growers,” said Ashley Smith, executive director of Black Soil. “We have the supply to meet the demand.”
Through some grants and other philanthropy, including some funding from Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman James Brown, the group has gutted and remodeled the building and is working toward the June 7 opening date.
Come June, the now empty store will be stocked with such fresh vegetables as lettuce, squash, tomatoes and later in the summer, melons. There will be meat, farm fresh eggs and white and chocolate milk.
It’s definitely a need in the Georgetown Street area, said Rolanda Woolfork, president of the Georgetown Street Neighborhood Association.
“It’s definitely a food desert. Most people have to drive to Leestown Road Kroger, the Wal-Mart on Russell Cave or Sav-A-Lot,” Woolfork said. “But those stores are not in walking distance. This is.”
It was Woolfork who brought the availability of the building to Smith’s attention several years ago. Woolfork had worked with Black Soil for several years, bringing Black Soil fresh food to people in the Georgetown Street area who often struggle to buy fresh produce.
After the former market on Florence Avenue shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic, Woolfork contacted Smith to see if Black Soil would be interested in leasing the building.
Eventually, Black Soil was able to sign a five-year lease for the building.
“It was a no-brainer,” Woolfork said. “We are beyond excited.”
