Southeast Market Plaza opens with My Community Health clinic, grocery store coming soon

CANTON − Canton resident Curtis Bendson used to need a ride to Massillon to see his primary care doctor following his stroke a year ago.

Now he only needs to go about four miles down the road.

Bendson was among the first patients at My Community Health Center’s new clinic that recently opened inside the Southeast Market Plaza at 1318 Gonder Ave. SE. The site is around the corner from the Edward “Peel” Coleman Community Center and Patrick Elementary School.

Bendson said while having his doctor closer to his house is nice, he recognizes how important the clinic is for the southeast community. Federal agencies have identified the area as medically underserved and a food desert, meaning many of the residents don’t have easy access to healthy and affordable food.

“What I was really more happy about is that it’s in an area that other people can get to for people that can’t get on the bus or don’t have a car,” Bendson said. “They can get to that area real quick.”

Plans to establish a health care facility and a grocery store in the southeast end of the city have been nearly 10 years in the making.

Canton For All People, the community development arm of Crossroads United Methodist Church, has spent the past two years pursuing its plan to redevelop the 11,000-square-foot facility that will house not only the health center but also a grocery store and another community resource that has yet to be finalized.

More than $2 million in repairs have been made to the building, which had been owned by Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority and was last used roughly nine years ago by the YWCA for childcare services. A $1.3 million grant from Canton City’s allocation of coronavirus pandemic relief funding and a variety of private donors covered the cost of the improvements.

Here's what to know about the Southeast Market Plaza:

Health clinic offers primary care, walk-in appointments

My Community Health Center, a nonprofit federally qualified health center with clinics in Magnolia and in Canton at 2600 Seventh St. SW, operates the health clinic in Unit 1 of the southeast plaza.

Juan-Paulo "J.P." Afable, chief executive officer of My Community Health Center, said having a clinic within the heart of the underserved community helps to remove the transportation barrier for families who often have competing priorities.

“Priorities are different when you have to worry about food on the table, you have rent and you have heating bills,” Afable said. “And then you forget about your own (health), and you get to us when it is already too late. We try our best to meet them where they are at.”

The Gonder location is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays with walk-ins welcome from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The office is closed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. To schedule an appointment, call 330-639-1071. As a federally funded facility, My Community Health Center provides care to patients regardless of their insurance status or their ability to pay. It offers a sliding fee scale.

LaToya Dickens-Jones, the family medicine nurse practitioner at the site, can provide primary care for those age 2 and older, as well as preventative care, chronic care management, acute care and HIV prevention known as PrEP.

Dr. Sarah Hoehnen, chief medical officer for My Community Health Center, will be serving patients at the Gonder location on Wednesdays. She is an infectious disease specialist with a focus on addiction medicine, HIV and Hepatitis C treatment, HIV prevention (PrEP), and gender-affirming care for adults.

Telehealth services are available once patients are established. Patients also can use My Community Health Center’s pharmacy to get discounted prescriptions that are delivered to the Gonder clinic, Afable said.

Hoehnen expects more services, such as women’s health and behavioral health care, to be added to the clinic as the community tells them what residents need and as they connect with more local organizations.

“I think we can marry and partner health with access to food and access to housing and access to all the things that people really need to be healthy,” she said. “You can’t just be healthy because you get medical care. You need it all. … What I see as success in this specific place is really developing those connections and providing the holistic services that people really need.”

Sommers Discount Market grocery coming to Canton

Sommers Discount Market, which opened its Hartville location in 2007, is expected to open its second discount grocery outlet with fresh produce and meat-and-cheese deli in Unit 3 of the southeast plaza next month.

“I’m excited about it,” said Roland Sommers, owner of Sommers Discount Market. “I love to serve people. I love to save people money. And I love to be able to serve different communities.”

It will be the neighborhood’s first grocery store in decades. A group of Methodist churches have agreed to cover the market’s operating and maintenance costs for its first 10 years.

Sommers specializes in selling groceries that large stores consider to be unsellable but are still safe for consumption.

“It’s like the T.J. Maxx for groceries,” said Sommers, who plans to hire people from the neighborhood to work at the store.

He said the discount items may include cans with dents and cereal boxes that were damaged, but their contents have not been impacted. He said some items may also be near or past their expiration date. He said generally bags of chips won’t be sold beyond three months of their “sell by” date because they tend to lose their flavor.

Items such as baby food, eggs, milk, produce, bulk foods and items in the meat-and-cheese deli will be offered fresh, he said.

He said the Canton location, which is roughly 3,000 square feet, will be similar to the Hartville store, except it may have fewer varieties of its discounted dry goods due to the smaller space.

Hours will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. The store will be closed on Sundays. Sommers, who hopes to open by mid-March, is currently accepting applications at www.sommersmarket.com.

Police outpost, cafe, laundromat considered for remaining space

Unit 2 in the plaza remains undeveloped. The Rev. Don Ackerman, executive director of Canton For All People, said the southeast community advisory board, which includes residents and community leaders who meet monthly, continues to discuss potential tenants for the roughly 1,600-square-foot space.

Some of the ideas considered include an outpost for the Canton City Police Department, a coffee shop and café, an ice cream shop and laundromat.

The advisory board also will guide how the money generated from the plaza will be reinvested into the property. Canton For All People also owns two acres of land north of the Southeast Market Plaza that it intends to use as a community resource.

Reach Canton Repository staff writer Kelli Weir at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Southeast Market Plaza opens with health clinic, groceries up next