Illustration generated for The Metro Record; no identifiable people depicted.
**THOMASBORO-HOSKINS: ** Beverly Knox Davis was feeding her neighborhood before the $12 million Carolina Farm Trust grocery project arrived on South Hoskins Road. A Brighter Day Ministries remains at work after that project stalled.
Davis founded the food pantry in the historically Black west Charlotte neighborhood, less than half a mile from where the grocery project was planned. The pantry serves more than 80 people a day on a budget of less than $1 million. Three generations of women work there.
The line once wrapped around the block.
Those facts are simple, but they describe a kind of neighborhood work that can be easy to overlook. Thomasboro-Hoskins has deep roots and a culture of neighbors helping neighbors. It is also a longstanding food desert. According to WFAE’s reporting, just 3% of homes are within a half-mile of a full-service chain grocery store. Some seniors take a bus to shop for food. Others walk to the convenience stores along South Hoskins Road.
Davis has been part of the response for years.
When Carolina Farm Trust closed its farm stand, the nonprofit donated refrigerators to A Brighter Day. Davis said the equipment was helpful. The pantry’s work continued through the larger project’s promises, delays and eventual stall.
The grocery project drew attention because of its size, its funding and its promise. The pantry has kept going with far fewer resources, providing food every day.
Davis did not describe the proposed grocery store only as an institutional project. She described what it made possible for the neighborhood.
“It just had us all dreaming what could be a part of this area,” Davis said in reporting by Metro Record Charlotte and WFAE.
That hope remains part of her view. Davis has said she still wants the Carolina Farm Trust project to succeed, not as a substitute for the pantry, but because Thomasboro-Hoskins still needs reliable access to fresh food.
“Zack brought a lot of hope to a lot of people when it was all presented, and I just want to see it happen the way it was presented to all of us,” she said.
As a new publication, Metro Record Charlotte is making room for this kind of Charlotte community news: stories about the people who keep a place going before a major project, grant or headline brings outside attention.
What is held here is a small, clear record of Davis’s work and her words. What is still awaited is the fuller story of the neighborhood, told through more of the people who have kept showing up.
A Brighter Day has been one of the constants.
Illustration generated for The Metro Record; no identifiable people depicted.
