LOCAL
Kimberly Marsh, The Oklahoma Eagle
Located in north Tulsa, the Grocery Box is offering hope alongside groceries. Photo: Tim Landes/The Oklahoma Eagle.
Since opening in north Tulsa five months ago, The Grocery Box has proven to be a catalyst in providing fresh, affordable food in a food desert.
Paired with the Tulsa Dream Center, the full-service store has already exceeded $95,000 in sales and has served more than 9,000 customers who live around MLK Jr. Boulevard and West 46th Street North.
Housed in a shipping container, Katie Plohocky said the store is a model for her long-term vision to create healthy communities in Tulsa.
“We’re tackling one food desert at a time,” she said. Plohocky is the founder and president of RG Foods which, in addition to the Grocery Box, serves 17 Tulsa Housing Authority communities each week through a mobile service. Her long-term plan is to open healthy corner stores that people can get to by either walking or riding their bikes.
Resident Richelle Kelley said being able to swing by the store on her way home from work gives her a convenient option to grab ingredients she needs to make dinner.
“They have everything here — packaged meats, frozen foods and even diapers,” Kelley told The Oklahoma Eagle.
Through a partnership with Hunger Free Oklahoma, RG Grocer’s Double Up program offers up to $20 a day in free produce at the north Tulsa store for any SNAP purchases, Plohocky said. The store also accepts the Osage Nation’s senior nutrition program and its WIC produce program for women and children.
Double Up has already spurred a generous helping of fruit sales.
“We make 100 fruit cups a day and they are all sold out by the end of each day,” Plohocky said, joking that her chef is wondering how much longer this will go on, as her arms are tired from cutting up fruit. So far, they’ve sold more than 4,000.
That’s why it’s an added bonus when Kelley arrives before the Dream Center’s after-school program begins. Like a kid picking out prizes at the arcade, she’s lucky to score four containers of watermelon chunks that would otherwise be wiped out by students and parents.
But the grocery store has gone more than become an oasis for fresh produce.
“It’s a good place to come in and feel safe,” said store clerk Tina Noordhoff. She’s there to greet students after school and says she feels privileged to have a job that allows her to build personal relationships with many of her customers. For the neighborhood children, the store is also about building community.
“They know they are welcome,” Noordhoff said. “Sometimes kids don’t feel welcome in some spaces. It makes me happy to answer their questions like, ‘How much can I buy with this?’”
The store has also provided jobs, allowing two employees to buy their first cars and move into apartments.
The Grocery Box is a pilot for franchise expansion, Plohocky said. The company already has up to eight stores in the works, and her team will offer training to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn how to afford wholesale distribution access.
Its next store is set to open in October at the Phoenix at 36N apartment complex — also in north Tulsa.
