BUFFALO, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side's Scott Levin sat down with Tops Supermarket President John Persons as he reflects on the 5/14 tragedy. It was an emotional interview for Persons, who has committed his company to help in the Hope & Healing of Buffalo.
"Even a year later, it's difficult for me to continue to talk about it. But I know that I have to, because we're you know, we're all together on this healing journey. The whole community," Persons said.
"We knew right away, that we had to center on our associates to understand exactly what was happening with all of our associates, give them the care, the love and the support that they needed. And then shift the focus to support in the community, how do we reach out to the community?"
Persons says he wanted to make sure that the area didn't become a food desert. "That was that's very critical. Immediately, we, we helped with food distributions, emergency food distributions," he said. So, for the two months that the store was closed, we had distribution points that we were providing basic needs and fresh food. And we also heard pretty quick that, you know, there was there were many people asking, When will we reopen or what our plans are?
"We know we could remodel the store in a pretty short period of time. And we put all of our energies into that knowing that the community needed a grocery store needed access to fresh food and groceries. We certainly know that it's emotional that it's emotional topic or was the time certainly with with some people in the neighborhood," he said.
Persons also talks about the memorial Tops had built for the victims that you can see now inside the remodeled store.
"During the meeting, someone had brought up the idea of water wall, and the rest of the group at the time said, 'that's a wonderful idea.' So that's exactly what we did. And at this point, we're actually focusing now the water wall is up and it's still there. We are now focusing on our attention on a remembrance area. We know at Tops, and I certainly know for myself, that part of our obligation is to help that healing process to help the community move on."