LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) The Stoneboro community sits seven miles from Heath Springs in Lancaster County. Olie Shropshire, 83, was born and raised here.
“It was a beautiful place,” she remembers, “We enjoyed it. We had to walk to school and had one store.”
That store closed in 1953. There hasn’t been a grocery store in Stoneboro since, making it a food desert. The site of a former granite quarry, it’s home for around 125 families.
“This area has a lot of residents who are on dialysis, on oxygen,” said Heath Springs Mayor Eddie Moore, “I kind of feel like they shouldn’t have to go that far to get to a grocery store or to go to a drug store.”
Moore is working with Dr. Zora Denson, whose family is from the area, to bring attention to Stoneboro. Denson’s dad attended the only black school in the town. The historic two-room school house is now falling apart.
“Not much has changed since my dad was a kid here, so that’s when I really felt the heart tugging that we need to do more for this area,” said Denson, “It should be progressing, not regressing.”
Despite the regression, Denson sees opportunity in Stoneboro. Lake Wateree is just 10 miles away, and the land in Stoneboro is both plentiful and abundant.
“The land is definitely rich here,” says Denson, “For families who want to get away from it all and have a cabin here.”
But right now there are just two businesses in Stoneboro. James Milliken runs one of them. He says a grocery store would make life easier for his employees and would draw others to the area.
“We’ve always wanted to have something else around here,” says Milliken, “we have to travel a little bit further than we want.”
For some, the lack of a grocery store is an inconvenience. But Mayor Eddie Moore worries for others the consequences are more serious.
“No one should go without food. No one should go without medicine. No one should go without transportation. We’re living in 2020.”
