Are Mobile Groceries The Solution For Food Deserts?

A food desert is defined as an area where food is non-existent, not healthy or too expensive. The government recently released a food desert locator and Michelle Obama has pledged to get rid of food deserts within seven years. Now that we know what and where food deserts are and that we should get rid of them, how do we do that?

Michael Pollan points us toward one initiative, a mobile grocery developed by former Sysco president Rick Schneiders. MoGro sells a variety of frozen, refrigerated and fresh produce twice a week to the Santo Domingo Pueblo community in New Mexico. In addition to groceries, there are also nutrition workshops and a monthly fitness class.

Beyond the omnipresent food trucks in major American cities, other mobile food systems are sprouting up across the country such as mobile truck farms that serves as part-CSA, part-education tool about urban agriculture.

Hopefully this is the start of a trend: if you can't access good and fresh food, then perhaps the food can come to you.

Comments

[Ghostberry]

06:52 PM on 05/18/2011

This concept defeats the whole point of self reliance, freshness, supporting local. As far as i can see its just a normal grocery store that ships its crap from 1500 miles away. Only in a truck!

[BLACKCAT66]

07:56 AM on 05/19/2011

The point was to service food deserts - inner cities where no grocery or food stands exist and the mostly poor locals live on quickie mart style fast food.

[Ghostberry]

09:58 PM on 05/19/2011

Im from a huge city, are there really large inner city areas that dont have access to a grocery store? This seems bizarre to me but i havnt lived everywhere, maybe its true.

[Cynthia Ann Williams]

05:50 PM on 05/18/2011

If the Foods in these Foods Desert are healthy, meaning organic, then my first thought is why get rid of them? My next thought is if they are healthy, then create more for those who want to eat healthy and not be poisoned by whats in the regular grocery stores. Next do they include meats?

[BLACKCAT66]

07:57 AM on 05/19/2011

No food deserts are not healthy food - hence the desert part. It's offen just what you would find in a 7-11.

[GardenonGo]

03:57 PM on 05/18/2011

Mobile groceries are a great way to fight obesity in food deserts! In Indianapolis, Garden on the Go visits 12 stops/wk, year-round and is sponsored by a health system (perhaps the only such model in the nation?). You can learn more at www.iuhealth.org/gardenonthego.

[brrr]

10:37 AM on 05/18/2011

these trucks are great for urban neighborhoods whose residents don't have access to grocery stores! many low-income areas in cities only have corner stores or bodegas for people to buy food. we don't have MoGro in my city, but we have a truck called the VeggieMobile that sells fresh, locally-grown, organic produce to residents in disadvantaged areas. people love it! it's an affordable (much cheaper than produce at the grocery store) and easy way to make sure *everyone* in your city has access to healthy food (and subsequently, adequate nutrition)!

[ButterFlyGirlFly]

03:49 PM on 05/17/2011

I want a food mobile to come to my neighborhood.

[shastaman]

01:41 PM on 05/17/2011

Fantastic idea, but will these people care enough to purchase real food?
I hope so

[frank day]

09:27 AM on 05/18/2011

What is 'real food'?

Who are 'these people'?

[HSC55]

09:24 AM on 05/17/2011

Wow these are great ideas! We need some here in Benton Harbor. I'm going to give MyGro a call and see if they can send a mobile grocery here.

[thudula]

02:21 AM on 05/17/2011

Kansas City, Kansas has always had areas close to Missouri with no Grocery Stores. Personally all my food has been dried vegetables or dried ruit for over a year. I'm not vegetarian and it has been more than a year since I have been able to purchase meat. New Mexico is desperately in need of food trucks, and I visted that state many times. Keep the food truck movement going and grow fruit and vegetables at home in sunny winfows.

[Fbigdeal]

12:43 AM on 05/17/2011

Why do all fruits taste the same with the exception of bannana. Fruits these days tastes awful-there is no smell to them.

Sadly, I feel weak if I don't get it.

[Allie Bernhard]

03:28 PM on 05/19/2011

organic produce would taste better.

[Chuck Kenney]

06:37 PM on 05/16/2011

This is a great idea! I lived in Germany as a child and we had all sorts of produce and other food trucks come through the base. I hope this catches on.

[Fbigdeal]

12:37 AM on 05/17/2011

Yes, where I was as a child, we had "the milk man, the fish lady, the oil man, the clothing van, the dessert lady, the wood man, the lentil lady.

Growing up with fresh produce as a child - make it difficult for my body to adjust to all the junk floating around these days. Stomach cannot process it.

So I am not Lactose Intolerance - it is what they put in our milk, just an example.