Market on Wheels Will Bring Fresh Food into Twin City Neighborhoods

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twincitiesbus — Soon this former city transit bus will be carrying healthy food items into neighborhoods that lack healthy food access. Source: https://www.facebook.com/TwinCitiesMobileMarket/timeline

Twin Cities Mobile Market is a grocery store on wheels that brings affordable, healthy food directly into underserved neighborhoods. It fills a gap between food pantries and full-service supermarkets by providing a wide selection of fresh foods at below-market prices.

Leah Driscoll was finishing her master’s thesis paper on urban food deserts when she came up with the idea to create a mobile grocery store for the Twin Cities, she said in a local newspaper article, while also working for the Wilder Foundation. But the idea became a reality after her idea won $41,000 from the 2013 Colonial Church Social Enterprise Competition.

Their project also received a federal grant from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative which helped to fund the purchasing of the bus and they partnered with the Latino Economic Development Center.

Right now the bus is gutted and soon they will be adding in coolers and shelving. They plan to get food from local farmers from the Hmong American Farmers Association when available and the Sunray Shopping Center location of Cub Foods for year-round needs.

The Mobile Market will likely launch at the end of August or early September. According to Driscoll, they recently received approval to sell in Minneapolis; they hope to sell there next.

Check out Twin Cities Mobile Market on Facebook.
Read more about the mobile market in this news article.