ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A St. Petersburg grocer forced to shut down his business last year because he was denied participation in the USDA's SNAP program is taking his fight to get the decision overturned to the courts.
- Dorian Speaker opened Corner Garden Produce in 2019
- Decision to deny SNAP participation comes from 20-year-old traffic arrest
- More Pinellas County stories
Dorian Speaker opened the Corner Garden Produce last year in south St. Petersburg to help fill a gap in offering fresh fruits and vegetables to lower income families.
"People in the neighborhood that want some fruit and vegetables, they can just walk here," Speaker said, "They don't have to spend their gas to drive a mile, two miles away. They can not only purchase healthy stuff, but they can just get up and walk and come to the local corner, like they did in the good old days."
But in August he had to shut down his store after the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent him a letter denying him participation in the SNAP Program because he "lacks the necessary business integrity." The SNAP program provides nutritional assistance in the form of EBT cards to supplement the food budgets of low-income families.
Speaker's attorney, Andrew Tapp, says the USDA's decision is based on a traffic arrest Speaker incurred almost 20 years ago.
"It's a misdemeanor conviction for resisting arrest without violence," Tapp explained. "So this isn't something where Mr. Speaker had done something to harm another person or anything along those lines, and instead this is something the USDA has seized upon a particular technicality."
Speaker and his lawyer filed a federal lawsuit to get that decision overturned. USDA officials will not comment on the case, since it is in litigation.
Tapp said a judge could make a ruling on the case in the next six to eight months.