The Wichita City Council voted to allocate $1 million in ARPA funding for the Healthy Corner Store Initiative.
The funding would assist the design of a pilot program to help increase access to healthy foods. The city hopes to get that program started as quickly as possible, with eventual city-wide rollout in 2023.
The closure of the Save A Lot store at 13th and Grove in central Wichita a year ago and other recent closures have made the access of healthy food more difficult for some Wichita residents.
Both the city council and the county commission approved the Master Food plan earlier this year.
In other news, the council approved a contract with McCown Gordon Construction to build a new police substation in east Wichita.
The city plans to build the 25 thousand square foot substation at Lincoln and Pinecrest, on 5 acres of land west of the Alvin E. Morris Administrative Center. The project is now at 50 percent designed and will have a total budget of around $10.58 million. $9.2 million in ARPA funds will be used for the project.
