By Todd Chas | After breaking ground on a vacant city owned lot in the fall of 2014, Fresh Future Farm, a nonprofit urban farm, celebrated Lowcountry Giving Day on May 3 by opening its neighborhood store to the public.

On that day, Fresh Future Farm’s founder and CEO Germaine Jenkins (pictured above) started accepting cash, credit and SNAP (food stamp) benefits for an assortment of basic groceries and fresh produce grown onsite at 2008 Success Street.

The Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood in North Charleston, a certified “food desert,” has been without a full-service grocery store since Winn-Dixie closed in 2005. The new store is now open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.