Peanut and Zelb’s Produce Market sits on a small strip — small for a downtown street. To the left is an internet cafe with a dragon logo. To the right is town hall and the police station. Across from the store in the distance are train tracks and a round cabin with a roof painted a faded red — where a railroad depot used to be.
Outside of the storefront, Peanut and Zelb’s co-owner Demetrius Hunter is unpacking Collard greens, while playing old R&B hits like, "Ain't No Woman." The Clark family pulls up in a gray sedan on the search for fresh Collard greens.
"Oh, we got plenty of them," Demetrius replies.
Demetrius and his wife, LaTonya Andrews-Hunter, opened the store in April 2023 to bring fresh food to downtown Norlina, Warren County's largest town. Before that, just two grocery stores served Warren County's population of 18,642. Peanut and Zelb's is the first Black-owned food market in Norlina, which also has a majority-Black population.
For LaTonya, who has childhood memories of her grandparents' farm, Warren County looks much different from what it did 30 years ago. For one, it had more than two grocery stores and most people grew their own food.
LaTonya remembers her grandfather slaughtering every type of meat right on the farm – hogs, goats, cattle, chickens – and bringing it in for dinner.
Now, with fewer farmers in the county, many fields are overgrown – including the same farm her grandparents owned. LaTonya eventually bought and turned her grandparent's land into Soul City Farms, where she and Demetrius started selling produce. They soon realized traveling to a farm wasn't accessible for many area residents.
There's a Food Lion which is a five-minute drive from downtown. However, according to the 2020 census, about one in six residents who live around downtown don't own a car. Peanut and Zelb's is within walking distance for those residents.
"People can just grab the groceries and then just walk home, which is very convenient," LaTonya said. "There's not a location like that in the county. Most people either have to catch a ride, (because) there's no public transportation."
Access is just one piece of the puzzle. Part of Peanut and Zelb's work is educating its customers about the health benefits of its produce. Demetrius took time to guide the Clark family around the store, pointing out the collard greens and a big, beady lime green fruit the family hadn't seen before.
"That's called jackfruit," Demetrius said.
"Is it sweet?" a family member asked.
"It's sweet, but it's a different variety," Demetrius said. "We focus on local (foods), but we also focus on nutritious foods. So that is extremely high in potassium."
Demetrius then explained how jackfruit tastes like pulled pork when fried.
According to the 2022 Warren County Community Health Assessment, the two leading causes of death in the county are cancer and diseases of the heart. That's why Demetrius and LaTonya use the store to combat these health issues. They partner with local breast cancer organization Pink With a Passion to deliver food to survivors and those in treatment. They also host dieticians to teach customers how to cook food they're unfamiliar with.
LaTonya and Demetrius often walk with customers through the store to explain the health benefits of what they have to offer.
"You don't get that in the regular grocery store," LaTonya said. "The regular grocery store, ... they're going to show you where the items are, but they're not necessarily going to walk with you through the store and tell you the health benefits of the items that are available."
There are limits to the dent Peanut and Zelb's can make to food insecurity. Dara Bloom is a professor at N.C. State University who studies local food systems. Bloom said thinking in terms of food deserts isn't the best way to think about food access.
In rural locations, these are areas without a grocery store in its 10-mile radius. "You can't really have a profitable, sustainable grocery store business every 10 miles," Bloom said. "There just aren't enough people to really support that in a rural area."
Bloom said poverty is the biggest factor limiting food access, and it's hard for a local food market like Peanut and Zelb's to match the low prices of a retail grocery store like Food Lion.
"But I also do think that there's a lot that can be a great way to organize community, around food and agriculture and around healthy food," she said.
The location of Peanut and Zelb's is significant beyond just its convenience.
Facing the railroad tracks from the storefront to the left is the historically segregated Black part of town, which some still call "Colored Town" today. It's separated from the downtown by Division Street.
In May 2024, the Warren County Board of Commissioners formally apologized for the 1921 lynchings of Alfred Williams and Plummer Bullock. The events that led to the lynching started over an argument about apples. A white cashier swapped the good apples Williams and Bullock bought for bruised ones.
Just a few stores down from Peanut and Zelb's is a hardware store which bears the name of that same white cashier — Raby Traylor.
To honor this hidden history, to the right of Peanut and Zelb's entrance is a gallery of Warren County's Black history. The wall features photos of Eva Clayton — the first Black woman from North Carolina elected to the US House of Representatives — civil rights activist Ella Baker, and the environmental justice movement which started in Warren County.
LaTonya said several customers have told her they didn't know about Peanut and Zelb's because Black residents haven't felt welcome on the downtown strip.
"To be the first Black business on that strip, that's also good for our community to see as well," LaTonya said. That may be healing. And I see that in some people's eyes like 'I can, I'm coming in here now. You know, I'm coming on the strip now."
