Black leaders on Buffaloâs East Side are building markets to address food insecurity
By Claretta Bellamy The historic Fruit Belt neighborhood on Buffaloâs East Side, with its Grape, Peach and Lemon streets, was once thriving. Yet now, in place of the orchards that once gave the area its name, there are abandoned homes with broken steps and âno trespassingâ signs, overgrown empty plots of land and a troubling lack of grocery stores. The only supermarket on the East Side is Tops, where a white gunman killed 10 Black residents in May. While the tragedy brought national attention to this neighborhood and its status as a food desert, access to grocery stores with fresh produce remains