A family-owned natural grocery store opened in John Day Saturday.

Earthly Home Natural Market owners Jason and Alicia Griffin said they would be sharing space with Frontier Medical on Main Street.

Opening a health food store has long been a dream for the couple since Jason worked at an Apple Market in Utah.

The couple said John Day is considered a “food desert,” an area where its residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options are limited.

“We have people, local people, driving hours away, spending local money that needs to stay in our community,” Alicia said. “And that’s important to me to provide those things that people have to drive hours away to get and keep our money here locally in our economy.”

Alicia said she and Jason both asked themselves what they could do with their backgrounds and passion for nutritious, healthy food. Opening the store, they said, made perfect sense.

Alicia said they saw a gap in the marketplace they can fill. She said they want to bring more education, provide more opportunities and offer more community choices.

The store, Alicia said, hopes to soon be certified to accept food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

They said they are also mindful of the perception most people have of a natural grocery store.

“I always pictured a health food store like crystals and New Age music and incense,” Jason said.

Alicia said their goal for the store was more of a mercantile, “grocery-feel” kind of store, where they will recognize the people coming into the store and know their needs.

The store will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays at 401 W. Main St., John Day.