What does a hipster like more than a food truck? A farmers market. Combine those two things together, and you have a way to bring farm-fresh healthy eats to countless people.
As TakePart reports, starting tomorrow (Oct. 1) and running to Nov. 26, a farmers market on wheels called the Mobile Oasis Farmers Market will be rolling around Guilford County, N.C. as part of a nine-week-long pilot program organized by the county’s Public Health Department.
According to the report, the county is home to 60,000 residents who live in the area’s 24 food deserts (which means they are more than a mile from the closest supermarket). About 20 percent of the population are low-income, and many cannot afford cars — which means they don’t have a lot of fresh-food options.
MORE: Why Public Markets Are So Important
“A lot of these folks don’t have transportation and end up doing shopping at convenience stores or local corner stores,” Janet Mayer, a nutritionist with the department, tells TakePart.
It’s important to recognize how the lack of access to fresh food can negatively impact one’s health. Since these residents can’t get to fruits and veggies, why not bring fruits and veggies to them? Guilford’s mobile farmers market will sell goods such as broccoli, collard greens, sweet and white potatoes, pumpkins, onions, apples and kale from Smith Farms Greenhouses, a local farm in Gibsonville, N.C.
The trailer will visit two food deserts every week, setting up shop by the Department of Social Services in Greensboro, N.C. and at the Warnersville Community Center. As for the prices, the mobile farmers market is said to be “really reasonable” and will accept SNAP and EBT benefits.
With any luck, Guilford’s farmer’s market will be a rolling success.
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Tag: fresh food options
One in Five Baltimore Residents Lives in a Food Desert. These Neighbors Are Growing Their Own Produce
Boone St. Farm operates on two vacant plots in the center of East Baltimore Midway, one of dozens of neighborhoods in Baltimore identified as “food deserts.” Cheryl Carmona adopted the land in 2010 with two goals — that it serves as an urban farm that grows and provides fresh produce for its neighbors, and as a community garden where residents can learn about growing their own food.
Dozens of neighbors have pitched in and, four years later, Boone St. Farm has grown thousands of pounds of affordable produce. Residents on food stamps pay only $5-10 a bag. The community plots are used for gardening workshops and offer classes in nutrition to students at the nearby public school. As Boone St. Farm enters its fourth season, Carmona plans to include local cleanup initiatives and other projects aimed at making the farm an essential part of the neighborhood.