Rhonda Vesey’s persistent grassroots campaign was the driving force behind A.K. Kaid’s decision to open a grocery store in Syracuse’s Valley neighborhood. For over five years, this soft-spoken daughter of a 1950s Civil Rights pioneer championed the replacement of the long-closed Tops Friendly Markets in the Valley Plaza, a closure that had left the community without access to fresh food.
Super Imperial Market opens in May at the South Salina Street plaza, in the former Tops store. Following a $2.1 million renovation, it will offer fresh produce, meats, hot foods, and groceries.
“This project would not have been possible without Rhonda,” Kaid, whose family-run company owns four small groceries in Buffalo, told Syracuse.com.
Many American cities lack fresh food access, impacting low-income residents’ health and finances. Convincing store owners to invest in low-income areas is a constant challenge.
Syracuse, however, is an exception, thanks to 63-year-old “Aunt Rhonda,” a former corporate finance professional known for her no-excuses, family-like approach.
“She was a big player in being a spiritual motivator for us and staying on top of us,” Kaid said. “She really kind of was like a collection agency saying, ‘You need to come over here.’ ”
Vesey left corporate finance in 2020 to focus on her local organization, Food Access Healthy Neighborhoods Now. For four years, the organization’s half-dozen volunteers have partially filled the fresh food gap with farmers’ markets, while persistently advocating for a new store. Vesey contacted the plaza owner, Ellicott Development (founded by Carl Paladino), numerous grocery operators across the Northeast, and local, state, and federal officials to support the cause.
“I was knocking on everybody’s doors,” Vesey said.
Vesey’s father, Galyn Vesey, moved to Syracuse over 50 years ago. At 17, Galyn participated in a 1958 Civil Rights protest in Wichita, where Black students silently occupied stools at a segregated soda fountain for three weeks until the owner served them. This student-led sit-in was a model for similar protests nationwide.
Vesey attributes her determination to her family’s spirit and her upbringing by a strong Black man. She recalled the once-bustling Valley Plaza from her Syracuse childhood, which boasted two grocery stores, a department store, a drugstore, a bowling alley, and a Carrol’s burger joint.
She went to New York to start her career in corporate finance. Returning to Syracuse in 1994 after her mother’s death, Vesey found a changed neighborhood. Many of the two-parent, working households had left for the suburbs, replaced by low-income tenants. Businesses closed, houses deteriorated, and crime rose.
After Tops closed in 2018, neighborhood residents lacked access to fresh food, with the closest options two miles away—a major hurdle for low-income residents without cars. In early 2020, Vesey observed customers at Dollar General in Valley Plaza buying only packaged and processed goods, candy, and soda, highlighting the problem.
“I know (Dollar General) serves a purpose because it’s got health and beauty aids and paper goods and those kind of things, but there’s no fresh food,” she said. “When you’re in a low-income situation, perhaps generational poverty, sometimes you settle and you’ll say, ‘This will do.’ And it just broke my heart.”
Vesey vowed to bring a grocery store back to the neighborhood. She connected with Common Councilor Chol Majok, who helped gather residents and city officials to discuss options. This led to Food Access Healthy Neighborhoods Now (FAHNN), with goals to bring a store to the plaza and establish a farmers market in the interim.
Vesey’s mission was clear.
“I grabbed the ball and haven’t stopped running since,” she said.
Vesey’s unwavering persistence left a strong impression on Majok, who recalled her determination in ensuring city officials addressed the challenge seriously.
“Rhonda gets on your nerves, but in a good way,” Majok remarked, adding that “She is a different breed.” According to Majok, her success lies in her unique blend of persistence and kindness. She doesn’t react with anger to delays or rejections, but she also never gives up.
“I try very hard to not make enemies,” she said.
Vesey’s advocacy secured a farmers’ market at the plaza parking lot through Ellicott Development. FAHNN launched the Saturday market in June 2022 with Brady Farm and Plum and Mule, running it until October.
“We got to the end of the season, and I said, ‘We can’t stop here,’” Vesey said.
FAHNN launched a winter market in January 2023 at the plaza, offering bi-monthly events and cooking classes with the Food Bank of Central New York. Today, FAHNN runs year-round markets at the plaza, six-monthly mobile markets outside senior high-rises, and a Wednesday night market/workshop series focusing on cooking, health, and financial literacy.
Vesey acknowledges the credit but also highlights the dedicated volunteers, including Trudy Eudell, Audrey Haskell, Kathy Stribley, Kathy Downing, Will Wagoner, Paula Worrell, and Ranette Releford.
“I do not want this to be all about me,” she said.
The FAHNN team plans to continue its work after the grocery store opens, with Vesey collaborating with Ellicott Development on “Phase 2” of the FAHNN mission. This phase will use another part of the former supermarket to expand community programs, adding meeting space and a “mini regional market” for local artists and crafters.
“I need to expand,” she said. “We need wraparound services right here in this community. We have to build community engagement.”
FAHNN, in collaboration with the local nonprofit Hopeprint Association, has been actively engaged in fundraising efforts. As FAHNN’s farmers market program expanded, Vesey consistently emphasized their primary objective, displaying signs at events that provocatively asked, “Where’s Our Grocery Store?”
Despite Vesey’s efforts to collaborate with city economic development officials and Ellicott Development to present proposals to various grocery chains, there was limited interest from these companies.
“We’ve just been rebuked time and time again,” said Kevin Race, a business opportunity specialist with the city. “A lot of the corporate grocers, their real estate analysts will look at the median incomes in the zip codes and just say it’s too low.”
Over 15 years, the plaza saw a trend of departures and vacancies. Tops closed after six years, despite $850,000 in incentives, following P&C’s 2009 departure and a three-year vacancy. Ellicott Development then brought in Kaid, a successful Buffalo grocer, to consider Valley Plaza in Syracuse due to his track record in similar neighborhoods.
“I came out to Syracuse and said, ‘Wow, this is a real food desert,’” Kaid said. “That neighborhood really needs a store.”
Ellicott offered deeply discounted rent, but Kaid found the outdated fixtures and equipment Tops left, plus the building’s floor and roof needed replacement.
A possible solution emerged with the state’s new $10 million Food Access Expansion Grant Program. Race, Kaid, Ellicott Development, and FAHNN applied in late 2024, and in June, Syracuse received $1.7 million, a moment Vesey remembered learning about via email.
“I said, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe it,’ ” she recalled, placing a hand on her heart as tears welled up in her eyes. “Just four years running on the ground, running hard, running heavy, 40, 60 hours a week, because that’s what it was taking. I was just so happy.”
While opening a new Syracuse store will divert resources from his Buffalo operation, Kaid feels he can’t let Vesey down. She has consistently contacted him over the past year, emphasizing the project’s community importance and even visiting his Buffalo stores.
Vesey’s message to Kaid highlighted both a moral obligation to support a community in need and a viable business opportunity.
“She’s helping us realize how much of a value we are,” Kaid said. “We’re not in Syracuse. We don’t know the neighborhood. We’re guests coming into the area. She knows the neighborhood like the back of her hand, and she’s played a very big role into putting us together and keeping us together.”
Vesey was impressed by Kaid’s Buffalo stores, which offer quality, fresh food at fair prices, and engaging employees.
City officials and Kaid are planning community engagement, starting with a meeting on October 27 at McKinley-Brighton Elementary School, followed by a Thanksgiving turkey giveaway, a February open house, and a March recruitment. Vesey is committed to Super Imperial Market’s success, ensuring neighborhood awareness of these efforts.
