Reporters, welcome. Everything you need is here.

Ricky Parsons is the neighbor behind Locally Starved—a self-taught app developer, local business owner and community builder from Spring Valley, Illinois. He owns the building that houses FYA Bar & Lounge in downtown LaSalle, helps his fiancé Greg operate the bar and is the personality behind its social media.

Locally Starved grew from Ricky's frustration with watching massive companies siphon money out of the communities that earned it. His goal is simple: help local businesses keep more of every sale, give neighbors better prices and make it easier to discover everything the Illinois Valley has to offer.

Ricky likes to say he's bringing back "the drawer"—the one that once held the Yellow Pages, takeout menus and the phone number for somebody who could fix just about anything. Locally Starved is that drawer rebuilt for today: restaurants, shops, events, services and the people behind them, all in one place.

More than anything, Ricky wants to use technology to reintroduce you to your neighbors and keep our money, opportunities and success right here at home.