7-Eleven on Miami St. closing down

A convenience store in South Bend is shutting its doors.

7-Eleven is closing in an area that’s already considered a food desert.

Without any supermarkets or grocery stores along a portion of Miami St. in South Bend, folks have been coming to the 7-Eleven for decades for their basic grocery needs.

But now they’ll have to find a new store in a community that hardly has any.

The 7-Eleven is shutting down on December 15.

The next closest supermarket in the area is Kroger, nearly 2 miles away.

Today, Karl Nichols, Executive Director for Community Wellness Partners in South Bend, told me this food desert epidemic has been addressed within community focus groups.

“One thing we have come up with is doing small co-op stores that not only allow individuals to get affordable access to fresh fruits and vegetables but also to not even have to pay cash to just work off some of the food they’re getting, work off some of the costs so those are things in the works currently,” said Nichols.

Nearly everything inside the store is 50 percent off.