DANVILLE – Longtime Danville resident Versey Dyson-Speights collided with the owner of Heavenly Square Grocery outside his store.

“Pastor Miller, you’ve sold out of everything I need,” Dyson-Speights told Thomas Miller, pastor of the New Life Church of Faith. “Now I have to drive across town.”

Dyson-Speights needed turkey and the only other grocery stores in the neighborhood are convenience stores.

With the help of a state grant, Carle Health and other partners, Heavenly Square is bringing fresh ingredients to a part of Danville where they were previously unavailable.

After a soft opening event in May, the store celebrated its grand opening on Saturday.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Access Research Atlas, the Heavenly Square area is a low-income area with poor access to grocery stores.

“That’s a challenge for some people without transportation, and that makes (this place) really convenient,” Pastor Miller said. “There’s no other healthy food. We just have these places that have a lot of processed foods.”

The business received $5 million through the Vermilion County Community Health Collaborative, a coalition of several organizations including Carle Health, OSF Sacred Heart Medical Center and Danville School District 118.

Miller said it was his dream to open a grocery store in the area.

“I had the burden of having to dream. I had the vision and the desire. But if God did not give us his favor… There were 40 counties that wanted the same grant and we were chosen,” the pastor said.

Miller expects the business to be self-sustaining even after the five-year financing period expires.