IMMOKALEE, Fla. — A pilot bus program designed to help Immokalee neighbors access groceries will end after just one month of operation due to extremely low ridership.
The Immokalee to Ave Maria Express route launched Oct. 31 as a response to the community's grocery access crisis following the closure of Winn-Dixie, which was the area's only full-service grocery store. The weekend service was intended to transport people to Publix in Ave Maria at no cost.
Click here to see Immokalee Community Correspondent Victoria Quevedo explain what's next:
The program faced immediate challenges.
"There was a miscommunication with my staff on the beginning the first weekend, they didn't run the route from the parking lot," said Commissioner Bill McDaniel.
Even after officials clarified pickup and drop-off locations, only one person used the service during the second weekend of operation, he said.
The free weekend service ran Friday through Sunday, but Immokalee native Maria Salinas said the timing didn't work for working families in the community.
"During the day, people are at work. And then most of our people, our population, do work in the evenings. So it just wasn't working with the schedule," Salinas said.
Salinas also pointed to communication problems that prevented neighbors from learning about the service in time to use it.
"It just seemed like information wasn't provided to get it out to everyone in a timely fashion to be able to utilize it," Salinas said.
After a month, county officials decided to discontinue the route.
"We just all agreed it would be better to stop, discontinue the route," McDaniel said.
While the Ave Maria route failed to attract riders, county officials report that another bus route connecting Immokalee to Naples has seen increased ridership since Winn-Dixie's closure.
Despite the pilot program's end, Salinas emphasized that Immokalee still needs a long-term solution to its grocery access problem.
"We need a long term solution. We need a big box store to come into Immokalee to help with our needs here as a community," Salinas said.
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