In rural areas of the Mississippi Delta, residents face some of the highest rates of food insecurity and unemployment in the state, resulting in poor health outcomes including obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Despite federal cuts to food assistance programs and the elimination of grants aimed at improving food access, Black women entrepreneurs are stepping up to fill the gap.
Grocery store owner Marquitrice Mangham opened the Farmacy Marketplace in Oakland, Mississippi — a town of about 400 residents that had been without a grocery store — bringing fresh food options to a community that needed them most.