New food market pushes affordability and accessibility

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Making healthy food accessible is the mission at Salud Market on Main Street. It just opened in March, selling produce on one side, juices and smoothies on the other.

“Healthy eating should not be a luxury, it should be a necessity and everyone should have access to it,” said Marielyn Santiago-Miller, Co-Owner.

She and her husband James had this dream of creating a healthy market, targeting communities of color.

“There are disparities among [certain] socioeconomic communities in terms of health care and chronic diseases that stem from lack of healthy eating,” said Santiago-Miller.

So she created Salud, the Spanish word meaning health. It’s a place where you can get two kiwis for $1 or aloe vera for $2. Prices that bring sticker shock, in a good way.

“With the rise in everything now, we wanted to make things affordable. Just the other day we had a group of senior citizen ladies, they were shocked by the prices and it was gratifying to be able to serve them,” said Santiago-Miller.

She’s working to make her food even more accessible.

“I fought so that everything in this store can be purchased with SNAP benefits,” said Santiago-Miller.

She says they’re just waiting on authorization, which could come in weeks. In the future, this couple hopes to open an entire grocery store, educating people on healthy eating.

They have recipes on their blog’s website using ingredients they have in the store, click here to read through.