Nonprofit Saving Our Seniors Opens Produce Shop In St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Anonprofit organization dedicated to assisting seniors by providing them with produce and durable medical equipment has taken their mission to the next level by opening a produce shop in St. Petersburg.

Your Neighborhood Produce at 132 49th Street South held its grand opening Monday.

“There were so many people and they just kept coming in,” Kelli Casto, who opened the shop, told Patch.

Casto, an occupational therapist, initially founded Saving Our Seniors in 2016 as a way to get seniors the medical equipment they might need for free or on a sliding scale.

“Medical equipment can make somebody so independent. That’s how this all got started,” she said.

She shifted gears early in the COVID-19 pandemic when she started getting calls from seniors seeking fresh produce.

“They would call literally every day,” Casto said. “So, I started a fresh farmers market in my Chevy Malibu.”

Corporate sponsors allowed her to buy produce and distribute it at 55 and older mobile home communities and recreation and senior centers. She served 500 seniors every couple of weeks.

Last year, she lost her funding, which forced her to change direction again.

“I was killing it and learned a valuable lesson - not to get all my funding from the same place,” she said.

By that point, she was getting produce to about 96,000 seniors each year.

Force to rethink how she operated, Casto launched a new initiative, Produce PAC, a delivery service. Through this program anybody could buy produce via delivery and it would help pay for produce for a senior.

“So, you buy one and give one. You buy it and then I give produce to a senior,” she said. “Kind of like TOMS shoes but for produce.”

While the program was successful, people would contact Casto because they “wanted to touch the produce,” she said.

After this feedback, she decided about six weeks ago that she wanted to open a produce shop but wasn’t sure she could find an affordable space to rent. She found a storefront she couldn’t afford but stayed determined.

“If I get something in my head, I’m doing it,” she said. “But I went to school to be an occupational therapist, not to sell produce.”

Eventually, Casto found a location that worked and she quickly opened the doors to Your Neighborhood Produce, which operates under Saving Our Seniors.

Everyone is welcome to shop at the store, which accepts SNAP and Medicare Advantage benefits and Fresh Access Bucks, as she fulfills her goal of making healthy foods accessible to everyone.

“I sell good quality produce for an affordable price no matter where you’re at with your budget,” she said.

The shop is needed in the community, Casto added, saying about Monday’s grand opening, “There were so many people and they just kept coming in.”