– Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Teresa Wood Marcy Olson rings up Ben Waddsworth's purchase as the Jewell Market while Emily Fields bags the groceries.

JEWELL — Business advisors recommend that every town needs a variety of 50 businesses in order to thrive. At the top of the list is the need for a grocery store because everybody needs to eat.

So when Anderson Market permanently closed in December 2019, community members banded together to bring a grocery store back to town.

In January 2020, a group of area residents established a limited liability corporation with 100 shareholders buying shares for $400 each. After further review, it was determined a total of $220,000 would be needed to reopen the business. So a fundraising effort was launched.

“We went for the low-hanging fruit and raised between $60,000-$70,000,” explained Hamilton County Supervisor Rick Young.

While the effort was admirable, it wasn’t enough to bring the business back to life.

So in March 2020, the group put their heads together to find a solution.

“Eight or ten people gathered in the empty grocery store in March 2020 and brainstormed,” said Young. “We decided that it was unacceptable to not have a grocery store in town.”

Each member of the steering committee brought their own expertise to the table, said Young. While fundraisers work in normal times, the coronavirus pandemic made gatherings for such events impossible.

It was suggested that since nobody could eat in a restaurant, the group should offer Grab-N-Go meals, explained Young.

The first Grab-N-Go took place on Sunday, April 12 with 150 meals selling out in 40 minutes and netted $30,000 for the cause.

“We had set a goal of $5,000,” said Young. An added bonus was that Jewell Development had put up a $20,000 matching grant for the event, so the effort far exceeded the initial goal.

The following Sunday, the group upped their meal quota to 200 and those sold out in less than an hour.

The group continued to offer the Sunday meal events for seven weeks with lines of vehicles stretching through Jewell for several blocks as they waited in the queue. When the last meal was handed out, the group had raised $238,000.

“We did it one dollar at a time,” explained Young who remains amazed at the community spirit and the generosity of people within a 30 miles radius of Jewell who took part in the fundraiser. Hungry donors came from Ames, Story City, Ellsworth, Webster City, Hubbard and Williams. One customer who saw the posting on Facebook, dropped by on his way back home to Minneapolis and donated $50 for the cause.

“I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never been so proud to be a part of this small community,” said Young. “It was just so much fun!”

The next step was to prepare the building for business.

Volunteers worked tirelessly to help gut, paint and install shelving. By mid-July, the store had a soft opening, he said.

Then came the challenge of actually running the business.

“We had no experience with operating a cash register, so for those first sales, we had to manually compute purchases,” said Young. “But we eventually got it up and running.”

The official store ribbon cutting was held on August 3.

Garren Zanker, a native of Stanhope, serves as the president of the Jewell Market board and helped offer his invaluable expertise after almost 20 years in the grocery industry, said Young.

As a teenager, Zanker’s first job was working as a sacker at Anderson Market while attending South Hamilton High School. During his college years at Iowa State University, he worked at Fareway and enrolled in the company’s management program. He was with Fareway for 19 years, moving around the Midwest. He also worked at the Des Moines and Boone HyVee stores for two years.

Zanker was offered the position of Jewell Market general manager and with it came the opportunity to move back to the area where he and his wife could raise their four children.

“As general manager, his experience has been invaluable,” said Young.

Under Zanker’s direction, the store’s deli serves about 80 meals a day and offers carry-out specials Monday through Saturday. Zanker also posts daily and weekly grocery specials on Facebook, explained Young.

“He has a great personality and people just love him,” said Young. “He puts a product in a customer’s hand when they enter the store and asks them to try it. Nobody ever puts it back on the shelf.”

The grocery business has changed radically just in the past few years, explains Zanker.

“We are such a go-go society where stores provide for the family on the go,” he said.

A grocery store, especially one located in a smaller community, needs to adapt to the lifestyle of its customers, Zanker said. Today, families are rushing from the school day to activities with a quick meal in-between. His goal is for the Jewell Market to fill that need at a reasonable price.

“This place serves a purpose because not everyone can travel to Ames or Webster City to shop,” he said. “We try to be reasonable and competitive.”

While the store is stocked with pantry staples, fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy products, it is also focused on prepared meals and grab-n-go luncheon specials that can be eaten on the run or as a take-home dinner entree that can be heated and served, he said.

The store recently purchased a new cooler which will showcase take-home prepared meals in the near future, said Zanker.

Using marketing strategies, Zanker is helping to expand the customer base of the grocery store. One way is through offering recipe ideas that use advertised store specials. Another way is to serve the needs of sportsmen and campers who visit the Little Wall Lake recreation area.

The store also tries to give back to the community. Jewell Market helps stock the local food pantry by offering sacks of basic food items that can be purchased by customers and donated, said Zanker.

The business is unique in that the City of Jewell owns the building but the Jewell Market board of directors owns the grocery store and pays for the insurance, said Zanker. In return, the business generates a tax base for the town.

Jewell Market operates with 12-15 part time temporary staff and 2-3 full time employees. In addition, 4-5 people volunteer on a weekly basis just to keep the business running, said Young.

“It is not unheard of for all the nine board members to help unload the delivery trucks,” said Zanker.

One of those valued employees is Craig Anderson, the former owner of Anderson Market. Anderson mans the meat counter about 20 hours a week. He also has a butcher apprentice program for training young people who can step up in the future, said Zanker.

In addition, a high school student who is interested in graphic arts, designs the store’s weekly ads, he said.

Throughout the organizational and start-up process, Zanker was encouraged by the efforts and support of the community and in turn feels indebted to them for their confidence.

“We feel responsible for all the people who have put their faith in us,” said Zanker.