Emmet Pierson, Jr., chief executive officer of Community Builders of Kansas City (CBKC), announced this week that the organization has received an $800,000 grant from the Office of Community Services (OCS) to serve job retention and creation for Blue Parkway Sun Fresh.
CBKC became the owner / operator of the grocery store - one of the few full-service supermarkets east of Prospect Avenue - in June of this year.
U.S. Senator Roy Blunt and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II were instrumental in supporting CBKC’s application for the OCS grant. Rep. Cleaver participated in a ceremonial check presentation at an outdoor concert of Kansas City Symphony musicians hosted by CBKC last weekend.
“At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is causing organizations to shed jobs by the thousands, CBKC has an opportunity to not only keep and add jobs but do so in a critically underserved community. The fact that this allows us to grow a grocery asset in what otherwise would be another urban food desert is especially gratifying,” Pierson said.
Blue Parkway Sun Fresh currently has more than 60 employees, the majority of whom live in the same or adjacent zip codes.
This OCS grant followed a $500,000 city of Kansas City, Mo. grant received from the office of Neighborhoods & Housing Services. The city’s grant, part of monies funded to combat local effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, will enable CBKC to add online grocery ordering and pick-up services at Blue Parkway Sun Fresh.
“Blue Parkway Sun Fresh already has a great leadership team with John King as store manager and others like Michelle Mitchell of the Stapleton family, whose grandfather Leon Stapleton owned what is thought to have been the oldest black-owned grocery store in the country until it closed in 2019. We are developing the most modern of supermarkets with the warmest, most old-school customer service, Pierson said.
Unrelated to the grocery, another recently received COVID-19 grant from Neighborhoods & Housing Services for $592,000 will enable CBKC, in partnership with the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation (HEDC), to expand services at the Blue Hills Executive Center. Pierson said HEDC will provide technical assistance at the Center, housed in the CBKC-owned 5008 Prospect building, to minority and women entrepreneurs as they look to reposition or start a business in the COVID and post-COVID era.
“We are pleased to see the growth in national attention and funding coming to CBKC projects. With the $100,000 JPMorgan Chase grant last year and this most recent OCS grant, we hope it is just the tip of the iceberg of new, national equity finding value in what CBKC is working to accomplish for Kansas City’s black and brown communities,” Pierson said.