Phoenix at 36N Apartments is home to Tulsa’s newest Grocery Box location. RG Foods celebrated the micro grocery store’s grand opening Saturday.
The store is located at the ground level of the 100-unit, mixed-income housing complex near 36th Street North and North Peoria. It includes a deli and espresso bar.
The opening comes about a year after RG Foods partnered with the Tulsa Dream Center to open its pilot location to serve customers near West 46th Street North and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The micro grocery store will help remove barriers in a community that suffered for years from a lack of fresh food access. It joins Oasis Fresh Market and grocery distributors like Fresh RX and Food on the Move in closing that gap.
“A grocery store really is essential infrastructure,” said Katie Plohocky, RG Foods executive director. “When you build a grocery store in a food desert, you’re not just opening a business, you’re correcting a gap in equity.”
Beyond cash, debit and credit payments, the Grocery Box accepts payments through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Double Up Oklahoma, the Osage senior nutrition program and WIC, according to RG Foods’ website.
Outside of the grocery stores, RG Foods operates the Tulsa Fresh Food Academy, giving 16- to 18-year-olds hands-on experience and mentorship in the agricultural and culinary industries.
“This is our model for how to close the food gap in cities across Oklahoma. We believe access to healthy food is a right, not a privilege. And this is just the beginning,” Plohocky said.
Others present for the ribbon-cutting ceremony included Dr. Jabraan Pasha, who leads Tulsa’s Office of Health and Well-being, and Brandon Oldham, a senior program officer with the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
Oldham said although “there’s a $40 million demand” for grocery access in the community, many people have to travel outside their neighborhoods to shop for them.
“I think about my days growing up when folks — aunts or uncles or elders — would tell me ‘Go grab this from the store for me,’” he said. “With how far you had to travel going to the store, me and my bike got really acquainted.”
Oldham said the experiences you have growing up and what you have access to tends to influence where you decide to live — or not — when you get older. He said hopefully this new opening will change that.
“Living here in this development, that kid is just hopping in an elevator, coming down and going right back up,” he continued. “That’s the power of what’s happening here. We can accelerate that timeline from having hard conversations about the problems of this area to grappling with the promise that’s here.”
The micro grocery store is part of the multi-phase Envision Comanche redevelopment at the site of the former Comanche Apartments. Once finished, the project will include 545 mixed-income units, and 271 were offered first to former Comanche residents.
Disclosure: The George Kaiser Family Foundation provides financial support for The Oklahoma Eagle and Tulsa Flyer. News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
