Radio Host Danny Parkins Raises $660k for Nonprofit Supermarket in 24-Hour Radiothon

Chicago radio host Danny Parkins completed a full 24 hours on the air Thursday morning, raising $660,000 to start a non-profit supermarket in Chicago's West Side.

Parkins' 24-hour radiothon, titled "What About Chicago," received contributions for the future Austin Harvest Food Mart from about 4000 donors. "You did it, we did it...Scoreheads came through," Parkins said as he finished up the final moments of the Radiothon, according to his show's Twitter account.

Parkins, who hosts AM670's The Score, teamed up with Sam Acho, a former Chicago Bears linebacker, who drew Parkins' attention to the problem that West Chicago's Austin neighborhood had 17 liquor stores and only two stores that sold groceries within a half-mile radius.

Last summer, Acho raised $500,000 through his charity, Athletes for Justice, to buy one of the liquor stores in the area that had been damaged during the George Floyd protests and built a pop-up grocery store on the site.

With the added funds from Parkins' radiothon, the pop-up grocery store, Austin Harvest, will be able to evolve into a newly built permanent brick-and-mortar grocery store building that can operate seven days a week on the same site, providing a place for residents to buy fresh, healthy food at reasonable prices.

A community program for neighborhood kids will employ youth after school.

"We did it!! I am blown away!!!" Acho wrote in a tweet Thursday following the Radiothon's finish. "Over $655,000 raised by over 4,600 individuals!! Thank you!! @DannyParkins - thank you for hosting for 24 hours STRAIGHT!! Everyone who gave to@AthletesJustice !! Thank you for giving!! We did it!!! A permanent facility on the West Side of Chicago!"

"Food deserts" are areas where grocery stores offering fresh, healthy foods are not readily available within easily accessible distances. But the Food Empowerment Project, a non-profit organization that promotes equitable access to healthy food, says fair food access isn't just about the distance to the grocery store.

"The other defining characteristic of food deserts is socio-economic: that is, they are most commonly found in Black and brown communities and low-income areas (where many people don't have cars)," according to their issues report. Studies have shown that wealthy areas have three times as many fresh food stores as poor ones, and white neighborhoods have about four times as many supermarkets as Black neighborhoods do.

"You guys crushed it," Parkins said on air Thursday while thanking all contributors and donors. "We closed the food desert, we employed some kids and we built a permanent grocery store on the West Side of Chicago."

Newsweek reached out to the Food Empowerment Project for comment but did not hear back before publication time.