Only grocery store in Duquesne closes

DUQUESNE, Pa. — Shut down and boarded up, Duquesne is now another community in the Mon Valley without a grocery store.

“Many residents have expressed their concerns of how they’re going to eat with the supermarket closing,” said Duquesne Mayor Nickole Nesby.

Save A Lot shut down two weeks ago.

“The concerns are the community found out about it in the ninth hour, so it was our understanding that the owner was having financial troubles in respect to income he was receiving here, and upgrades that needed to happen in the store,” said Eric Ewell, pastor and resident.

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Now the closest grocery store to Duquesne is one and half miles away.

“If you don’t have transportation that’s a problem,” Nesby said. “So many of our people in our communities do not have access to our vehicles.”

That hits home for Ewell. His disabled mother stays at a high-rise very close by.

“If you just look over my shoulder and up a little bit there’s the high-rise right there,” he said. “We were able to grab my mother food when we needed it. After work her neighbors would get food for her. She’s disabled and now we don’t have that, so it puts a lot of stress on my family.”

Community leaders are working hard to get food back into this neighborhood.

“Today was a meeting that I coordinated with foundation community with the state and the county economic development and we kind of all came together to talk solutions,” Ewell said.

Some of those solutions include creating a co-op, getting groceries delivered to those who need it and providing transportation.

“Thanks to help from our state representative, Austin Davis, and agencies and nonprofits like Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Port Authority of Allegheny County is going to increase service to our 69A to every 30 minutes instead of every hour,” Nesby said.

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