By GENEA NOEL

Freeport News Reporter

genea@nasguard.com

After doubling in size last year to meet the growing demands of the community, owners of Stop and Shop Grocers are focusing on making residents more health conscious one customer at a time.

Proprietor Keith Rolle and his team of employees, joined by nurses from the Rand Memorial Hospital and the culinary staff from the College of the Bahamas (COB), hosted a "Health Expo" on Saturday teaching residents in the surrounding communities about the importance of taking care of their bodies.

The Expo featured booths that offered blood pressure testing, blood glucose screening, cholesterol testing, weight and health assessments, health food preparation and dietary advice.

Rolle explained that it was important for them to focus on health because as an owner of many other businesses, he has to deal with employees who are occasionally ill.

"When we look at the work environment, many persons are out sick and when we did the research we found that it was mostly because of poor eating habits so we want to encourage not only our workers but everyone to live healthy," Rolle said.

He added that it was not only important for Grand Bahamians to learn how to prepare foods in different ways that are healthy but to also know their health status.

"Many persons are sick and do not know it and other persons think that there is only one way to cook certain foods, which can be the wrong way, and we want to help to change that."

Rolle said that since Stop and Shop opened in 2005 on Polaris Drive in the Britannia Plaza, they had intended to serve the immediate community in Bahamia and Caravel Beach, but there was a great demand from customers outside of that area.

They then decided to expand the business to include more products and services that his customers have asked for.

As with all tasks, Rolle said the process had its share of challenges but the biggest inspiration was knowing that customers liked their products and supported the growth of the business.

When asked what makes them different from the rest, Rolle said that they pride themselves on meeting the customers' needs.

"We treat our customers like we would treat ourselves. We put ourselves in their shoes and try to create a central location where they can get everything they need at one place," he said. "Time, fuel and finances are important to a customer and we take all of that into consideration by housing a little bit of everything to make the shopping experience brief and efficient."

Rolle said that in making that experience worthwhile, customers also have to consider what foods they are consuming everyday.