Salem’s searches for the ‘magic formula’ to bring fresh food to Hill District residents

Abdullah Salem opened the grocery store Salem’s Market in Pittsburgh’s Hill District in February. He knew it would be a tricky endeavor. Others had preceded him and failed.

The neighborhood had long been labeled a “food desert.” Many residents lack a vehicle, so for years they’ve had to take buses or jitneys to other parts of town to buy groceries. This raises the food costs for already strapped families — the median annual household income in the Hill is $16,000, Salem says. 

And it’s a hassle. Salem tells the story of a young mother who struggles with her young children as she boards a bus and travels to the South Side to buy food and haul it back to the family’s residence.

In truth, you can find food in the Hill, but it isn’t the stuff you can fill your pantry with. Salem learned this during the months he worked to prepare the then-vacant Centre Avenue store, which had at one time housed a Shop ‘n Save.

“The only options here are fast food and snacks, and I lived on that,” Salem said. He gained 17 pounds. “I ate more fried chicken in a few months than I ate in my entire life. And not that I don’t enjoy fried chicken and potato chips, but I missed salads, and I missed being able to have fresh healthy food.”

Monday morning, Salem stood near his store’s entrance, among a colorful array of produce including bananas, avocados, parsley, ginger, onions, Brussels sprouts and Indian bitter melon. A handful of government officials would soon be arriving to celebrate a federal grant that helped make the store a reality. 

While waiting, Salem considered all the work that had already gone into the place, and what had yet to be done.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he said. “I keep telling myself that.”

“We’re still in a ‘soft opening.’ People ask me, ‘When is the grand opening?’ I don’t know yet. But we’re still, every day, learning what the community needs. What’s the right selection of groceries? What’s the right selection of produce? What’s the right selection of meat? What’s going to be the magic formula for the community?”

Salem thinks that’s what will separate him from his predecessors. The Shop ‘n Save that once occupied the building opened a decade ago and was lauded as the first grocery in the neighborhood in decades. It closed in 2019.

To avoid that fate, Salem is building bonds with the community. Before the February opening, there were town hall meetings and gatherings at local churches and senior citizens facilities. Last summer, he held monthly community events that offered residents food and games. These gave him an opportunity to better know the community and for residents to ask questions.

Seven housing facilities for senior citizens set near Salem’s store. Residents from those facilities are among the first to arrive at the front door every morning. They buy fresh fruit, items from the dairy. Salem asks, “What do they and others in the community need and expect from a grocery store?” The answers can be as diverse as the Hill’s population. A number of Salem’s customers are immigrants.

“We have people who come in with pictures of produce on their phone, asking us, ‘Hey, can you find this for me?’” Salem said. “Curry leaves are something we didn’t carry. But our customers asked for it, and we got it. Mini okra — we sold frozen okra, but that’s not the same as fresh okra. So fresh okra comes three days a week. Our customers are really big on okra stew.”

He’s working on adding a dining area with prepared food and modifying the meat department so customers can request specific cuts of meat. Both are customer requests.

The government officials arrived at Salem’s shortly before 11:30 a.m. There were two from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in addition to U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale. Lee represents the Hill District and was instrumental in securing the $200,000 Healthy Food Financing Initiative grant from the USDA. Salem said that money was especially helpful in the development of the store’s produce section.

(In addition, Salem’s received a $150,000 Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative grant. Administered by The Food Trust in Philadelphia, these grants help Pennsylvania healthy food retailers open or expand grocery stores in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods.)

Salem thanked the officials for their help and gave them a tour of the store, guiding them through a selection of fruits and vegetables — the displays were a blaze of green, yellow, brown and red. Then the group went past large bags of rice and moved into the meat department, where butchers wearing red aprons were busy slicing up a variety of cuts.

After the tour, Salem joined the officials in a brief news conference at the front of the store. 

“When we’re talking about fresh produce, we’re literally talking about the health of a community,” Lee told a gathering of reporters. “The communities that have lowest life expectancies oftentimes are Black and brown communities, poor working-class folks. And that’s true obviously for a number of reasons. We have environmental factors, but also we have lack of access to healthy food and produce.

“I think about the communities that are going to be served now, who are making their homes here in Pittsburgh, in Western Pennsylvania, who will now have access to fruits and vegetables to make their native dishes. I think about folks here in the historic Hill District who are able to, right here in this community, for an affordable price, access things that are going to sustain their lives, prolong their lives, treat the ailments that they have.”

Cindy Axne, a senior adviser at the USDA, noted that big box stores have wiped out many of the smaller food operations all across the country — something her agency is trying to correct.

“We’re looking to revitalize America and make sure that it has a food system that works for us,” she said. “We want to make sure that everyone has access to clean affordable food. We want to make sure that we’re fighting back against climate issues that directly impact poorer communities, and we also want to make sure we’re keeping money in the pockets of the people in the communities that they live in.”

She noted the Salem’s store’s origins — it was founded by Salem’s father, Massaud Salem, who grew up in Libya and came to the United States in the early 1970s after clashing with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Massaud Salem opened a small store in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood so he could supply the community with halal meat. The business flourished and now includes Salem’s Market and Grill in the Strip District as well as the Hill District store.

One issue the USDA faces, Axne said, is a lack of staff. The USDA budget has been cut in the past, prior to the current administration.

“We’re running on about 60% of the staff that was once there,” she said. “More money is flowing through, but we’re struggling to get it out the door.”

Salem then stepped forward, looked into the television cameras gathered in front of him and offered a simple reminder of the imbalances in the Pittsburgh region.

“A lot of the people listening to this broadcast probably have two or three grocery stores in their neighborhood,” he said. “Our neighbors here in the Hill District did not have anything for years.”