When was the first Food Lion in America founded?

December 12, 1957 I don't know if this it or not

The Food Chain itself was founded in 1957 in Salisbury, North Carolina but was named Food Town. In 1974 the chain store was bought by the Belgium grocery conglomerate Delhaize Group. The Food Lion name was anounced on December 12, 1982 and adopted in all their stores by 1983.

As the company expanded across the state of Virginia, the chain owners encountered other stores named Foodtown in the Richmond area as well as about 100 other stores in Maryland also called Food Town. To avoid branding confusion and since the original Delhaize brand included a Lyon in its logo, the owners decided to change its name to Food Lion. One of the owners also realized the word Lion and the word Town where only 2 letters apart and could easily be rearranged. Although somewhat enigmatic to American buyers, the brand name made sense since Delhaize was once known as 'Delhaize Le Lion'