Dane Vida, president of IRBN in South Bend, stands inside his company warehouse, beside a shipment of canned food that will be sold to food banks in Indiana and several states. (SBT Photo/ROBERT FRANKLIN)
SOUTH BEND — Sometimes all you want to do is make a difference.
That’s how Dane Vida explains his decision to turn 39 years of food industry experience into a family business that is now largely focused on helping those in need.
He sources, warehouses and distributes products to food banks in several states. And a few weeks ago, Vida and his son, Jesse, converted the front of their Western Avenue warehouse into a discount grocery outlet store for west-side neighborhood residents.
The Grocery Outlet store is located at 2115 W. Western Ave., in the former ABC Supply warehouse and showroom in South Bend. The store is near Olive Street and Western, a few blocks from Goodwill Industries, and is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The shelves are stocked with low-priced canned goods from sliced potatoes to green beans, nonperishables from canned stews to peanut butter and a variety of other name-brand, off-brand and private label products.
“We want to save people money, especially people who live across the street and don’t have cars,” Vida says. “And if the store becomes what I think it could become, we might add on to the building and offer furniture and clothes.”
In the beginning, Vida did not actively set out to open a grocery store in what was considered a “food desert,” an urban neighborhood without ready access to healthy and affordable food.
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