Need Fresh Fruit in the 'Food Desert'? Go See 'Charlie'

When Sherif Ramzy wanted to open a produce store, he didn't even consider doing it near his home in Allentown.

"In Allentown," he said, "there are so many farmers' markets."

In Easton, there's THE Farmers' Market downtown, twice a week on Wednesdays (during the summer) and Saturdays (year round). 

But there's not a lot of corner stores selling fresh produce, which is the, um, market Ramzy's hoping to corner with Charlie's Farmers Market, which opened about a month ago at 1649 Washington St. in Wilson.

"Everybody who comes in says 'We need a place like this,'" Ramzy said Monday afternoon, just after ringing up a customer.

The store is just two blocks from Easton's West Ward, a neighborhood where with such a need for fresh produce—the USDA designates it a "food desert" — that vegetables get trucked in once a week. 

The neighborhood meets the food desert standard according to the USDA, in that—among other factors—20 percent of its households have no vehicle and live more than a half-mile from a supermarket.

"You have to go outside the city to get fresh produce," Esther Guzman of the West Ward Neighborhood Partnership told Patch two weeks ago.

But while the demand might be there, Ramzy acknowledges business has been slow. When he opened in June, there were chest-high piles of fruits and vegetables, he said.

Now, it doesn't make sense to order as much. He's hoping the addition of EBT service—aka food stamps—will bring in more customers.

This is a second career for Ramzy, who emigrated from Egypt and spent years working as a chemist for places like Ashland Chemicals and Air Products. With that job market dried up, he turned to produce.

"People need to get some produce in their lives," Ramzy said. "They need some fruits and vegetables."

Charlie's—which gets its name from a nickname Ramzy picked up after moving to the United States—is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.