GOING MOBILE TO BRING MUCH-NEEDED PRODUCE TO LOW-INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

In an urban area, living more than one mile from a supermarket (the simplified definition of a “food desert”) presents barriers to eating a healthy balanced diet, especially when transportation is a challenge. The Mobile Oasis Farmers Market (MOFM) was created to bring fresh local produce to residents of food desert areas in Guilford County, North Carolina to alleviate the need for residents to travel to purchase produce. During the 2014 fall pilot, each Wednesday from October 1st through November 26th – the MOFM went into two food deserts in Guilford County to set up and hold farmers market events. Each event included music, a cooking demonstration with taste testings of healthy recipes, an educational table staffed by a health educator – that distributed prevention and management information on an array of chronic disease topics, and a variety of fresh local produce for sale at near-cost prices. SNAP/EBT was accepted as payment along with cash and each week participants received a different educational extender such as a reusable shopping bag or produce cookbook when they made a purchase. Shopper’s names and contact information were collected for future social media outreach and items purchased and their associated dollar amounts, as well as the form of payment were documented. At half the events (on rotating weeks), surveys were conducted with a sample of participants at both sites to obtain demographic, opinion, and knowledge data. Preliminary results indicated that we were fulfilling a need not otherwise being met in these areas and that shoppers both enjoyed and appreciated the experience of the farmers market that was convenient to them.