New supermarket opens, bringing fresh food and hope to a struggling Alabama steel town [Video]

Carver Jones Market opened in Fairfield on Wednesday, the first grocery offering fresh meat and produce in the city in nearly a decade.

The Rev. Alton Hardy, founding pastor of Urban Hope Community Church, which he started in 2012, began working several years ago with supermarket veteran James Harris, now CEO of Carver Jones Market, to come up with a plan for their shared vision of a grocery to serve a needy community.

They got $3 million in support from non-profit ministries, including Clerestory Inc., to launch it.

“That was initial investment and working capital,” said Harris, a management veteran of stores including Safeway, Bruno’s and Food World.

From now on, the store must turn a profit to succeed, he said. “You cannot hope you’re going to make a profit,” Harris said.

“It was on God’s heart to be able to do something that others would call impossible, to go …