As a boy, Wendell Pierce dreamed of leaving his hometown one day for the world stage. Today, the veteran actor with global credits has returned on a mission: rebuilding neighborhoods, brick by brick, aisle after aisle.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, Pierce seized an opportunity to help his childhood neighborhood. He started a nonprofit with the goal of replacing hundreds of destroyed, 1950s-era homes with new ones.

The next item on his agenda was to solve the food desert problem with a chain of convenient neighborhood grocery stores.

(WATCH the video below from NBC News or READ the story at The Grio)