A grocery store specializing in a federally funded nutrition program that provides aid for mothers and pregnant women opened Oct. 30 in Denton .
What’s happening?
The grocery store specifically supports the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, which is an organization that provides healthy food, nutrition education, breastfeeding support and healthcare referrals for eligible families.
The WIC-only grocery store opened at 306 N. Loop 288 in Denton and serves Denton County residents. It operates as a counter-service store and has fresh, WIC-approved products, baby formula and other essentials, according to previous reporting.
The hours of operation are seven days a week from 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
The store, which is more than 2,000 square feet, allows women and families to redeem their WIC benefits more easily and under one roof, according to previous reporting.
Grocery Services North, a primarily WIC grocery store chain, worked in partnership with Serve Denton to open the store. Serve Denton is a nonprofit campus that houses dozens of organizations under one roof and helps partners customize spaces to fit their mission, according to its website.
Diving deeper
The opening comes after the Denton County Commissioners Court approved a $90,774 grant for the WIC Perinatal Mental Health Navigation Project during its Oct. 27 meeting.
Denton County WIC was selected by the WIC Maternal Health Center to spearhead perinatal mental health screening across three clinic sites in the county.
The project is designed to help Denton County WIC integrate validated health screenings into its services to support eligible participants who test positive for perinatal mental health conditions, according to county documents.
“At Denton County WIC, we recognize that maternal mental health is an essential part of the health and well-being of mothers and families in our community,” WIC Director Fabiola Vanegas said in a news release. “By integrating maternal health interventions into WIC services, we have a unique opportunity to identify health concerns earlier, strengthen referrals to care, and support healthier pregnancies and postpartum experiences.”
The backstory
The Loop 288 location was previously home to a WIC clinic, meaning some program participants may already be familiar with the site, Reina Sandoval, Grocery Services North’s senior district manager for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said in a previous statement.
Alex Lopez, the company’s director of store openings, said Grocery Services North chose the Loop 288 site based on proximity to WIC clinics and the lack of a WIC-centric grocery store in the area.
Grocery Services North recently opened a Lewisville location this past summer and operates other WIC-only grocery stores in Fort Worth, Austin and other locations in Texas, according to previous reporting.
