LOCALS
legacy of PLENTY Demetrius Hunter builds on the family business: delivering groceries to underserved communities by COURTNEY NAPIER photography by JOSHUA STEADMAN
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emetrius Hunter is a man who does not sit still. His day begins early in the morning, when he meets deliverymen to help unload fresh fruits and vegetables for the day’s grocery orders. He meticulously fills each crate with local produce: blueberries, assorted potatoes, onions, squashes and bunches of collard greens that stand up like church fans. After he loads up the truck, he follows a familiar route to the southeast corner of Raleigh’s urban core. While grocery delivery may be newly popular, Hunter’s business is 80 years in the making, a story of continuous
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innovation, perseverance and genuine neighborliness that connects people with quality produce. It starts around the turn of the 20th century: Hunter’s grandmother, Maddie Hunter, inherited 10 acres in Johnston County from her formerly enslaved parents. As was the custom in the Depression era, she and her family—husband Lonnie and sons Zelb and Raymond— had a large plot for growing their own food. Every time the Hunters traveled to visit friends in Raleigh, they’d bring along a basket of sweet potatoes, collards or okra to share. Their conversations would always include complaints about
the lack of quality of the produce options and the city slicker prices in town. These visits ignited Zelb Hunter’s entrepreneurial spirit. He convinced his brother that they could become truck farmers, an early twentieth-century business practice of farmers driving to sell produce directly to customers. But the Hunter family couldn’t afford to use their aging pickup. Gas prices were at an all-time high, so they cut off the bed of the truck and attached it to the family mule. Then they filled the makeshift cart with produce from the garden to sell to city-dwelling friends and their neighbors who longed for a taste of the country.
