Listen to the St. Pete Eats podcast here: https://audioboom.com/posts/8724953-st-pete-eats-w-wendy-wesley-kelly-casto-produce-pac
St. Pete Eats welcomes Kelli Casto of St. Pete's newest fresh produce store, Your Neighborhood Produce, in an area of St. Petersburg with limited access to fresh produce. Your Neighborhood Produce recently opened at 132 49th St. S. in the South St. Pete Community Redevelopment Area. The market is an extension of Kelli Casto’s mission to ensure neighbors can access fresh fruits and vegetables.
The store operates under the Saving our Seniors umbrella, a non-profit Castro founded to provide discounted medical equipment. She launched Produce PAC (People Assisting Community), a delivery service, in March 2024 and now has a storefront that welcomes customers who rely on food assistance programs to mitigate soaring grocery bills. “I think bringing this into a community that is often overlooked and undervalued by our society will allow them to feel appreciated,” Casto said. “I want to break the standard that eating healthy is too expensive and people can’t afford it.”
Casto called the area around South St. Pete’s Childs Park neighborhood a nutritional food desert. Your Neighborhood Produce offers about 40 fresh fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, broccoli, corn, cauliflower, collard greens, lemons, limes, oranges and pineapples.
Casto is now a certified SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) retailer. Feeding Florida provides a dollar-for-dollar match for benefits spent on eligible produce at participating markets.