The Springs Market<\/a> and a longtime community advocate, says that lack of access has real consequences.<\/p>\n\u201cYou have to make up for the shelf space,” said Adams. “So you have to overprice, overprice your goods and services. And then the quality of food coming to a small grocery or the mom and pop stores, you know, the variety. If you don’t have many choices, you gotta take what you have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Springs Market is a monthly farmers market that provides fresh food and supports local businesses. Adams says the initiative has served as a temporary solution while the community waits for something permanent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealthy eating is essential to human survival. Right? And being that we are a food desert where we don’t have a grocery within a half-mile radius within the Sulfur Springs community, you know, it can negatively negatively impact our community,” he said.<\/p>\n
Progress \u2014 but not a guarantee<\/p>\n
In January, Wostal announced that millions of dollars had been secured to support infrastructure for a grocery store in the area. The funding is part of a broader effort tied to the Community Investment Tax and a multi-year neighborhood revitalization plan led by the City of Tampa.<\/p>\n
Wostal says a bipartisan group is now working to identify the right private partner and move the project forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cA local group, a bipartisan local group, has volunteered their family CEOs to help on an advisory committee and identifying public partners,” said Wostal. “We just actually last week sent off the proposal letter just to try and get them to take the initial meetings with me. But on the 2024\u00a0 CIT renewal, there is a specific line item that I required for my yes vote to go to the voters, which is infrastructure funding for a private grocer in Sulfur Springs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, officials emphasize there is no signed deal, and no guaranteed timeline.<\/p>\n
Funding uncertainty ahead<\/p>\n
There are also concerns about whether funding will remain available.<\/p>\n
Wostal says the same pot of Community Investment Tax dollars could be affected by other major projects, including a potential stadium deal involving the Tampa Bay Rays. If those funds are redirected, it could limit what\u2019s available for the grocery project.<\/p>\n
Hope on the ground<\/p>\n
For now, The Springs Market continues to serve as a lifeline in the community, offering fresh food and a sense of progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been a, you know, a talking point for quite some time. So it’s about taking action,” said Adams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Organizers say efforts are expanding, with plans to add a community garden alongside the farmers market.<\/p>\n
While a permanent grocery store is not yet guaranteed, residents say this is the closest the neighborhood has come in years to making it a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A long-awaited grocery store in Sulphur Springs may be closer to reality, but county leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2031,274,558,2375,276,115,135,137,136,278,835],"class_list":["post-232372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-fadia-patterson","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}