This small SC town is a food desert since losing its only grocery store. A new group is stepping in

PAMPLICO — A town about a half hour’s drive from Florence, has been without a grocery store since September 2024.

The closest grocery stores — besides a Dollar General with a small produce section — are 14-20 miles away from the town of roughly 1,000.

Now, Florence’s Manna House plans to help residents in the food desert July 19 with a community food distribution event where boxes of food will be available for up to 200 families.

Manna House has been collecting food and partnering with local churches who have provided pantry items, hygiene items, as well as volunteers, said Melinda Waddell, Manna House’s executive director.

Looking past Florence and at other parts of the Pee Dee is important in fighting food insecurity across the region, Waddell said.

“I'm just trying to look at these pockets around here that there's no accessibility for healthy food, and just trying to help them out,” Waddell said. “They're already making decisions between not taking their medicine or whatever, and I want to make sure that they've got some food.”

What makes Pamplico’s food desert more complicated is that many of the residents are older and have less access to transportation, Waddell said. Getting transportation to a store in Pamplico — like the IGA that closed last September — would be one thing.

“To get somebody to drive you to Florence to a grocery store is a whole ‘nother thing,” Waddell said.

The boxes Manna House brings to Pamplico will include frozen protein, canned items, bread and other shelf-stable foods for families, Waddell said.

Manna House is not the first nonprofit to step up in the absence of a grocery store. GrowFood Carolina, an arm of Coastal Conservation League, has been working with the Pamplico Center for Community Development, according to previous Post and Courier reporting.

Every few weeks, a GrowFood Carolina driver takes a box truck on the more than two-hour journey from Charleston to Pamplico to get South Carolina-grown produce in the hands of residents.

The nonprofit last delivered food in mid-June and plans to make another delivery in the coming weeks, said Benton Montgomery, director of GrowFood Carolina.

If this weekend’s Manna House event goes well, Waddell said there could potentially be other similar events in the future. She’s thankful for the Town of Pamplico being willing to partner with her and raise awareness about food insecurity in the community.

The community food distribution event will be in front of Pamplico’s Town Hall at 180 E. Main St. from 9-11 a.m.