Westgate GreenMarket Express
First Mobile GreenMarket of its Kind
Coming to Westgate Community
Designed To Remedy “Food Desert” Designation in Low-Income Neighborhood
WEST PALM BEACH, FL, January 6, 2012 – There is a colorful, extended electric vehicle coming down the street with a large, 4 ½ foot
cucumber on top of it, designed like a race car, complete with cucumber slice wheels and a radish head “driver.” Had too many cocktails the night before? No, you are not dreaming…it’s the Westgate GreenMarket Express, offering local fresh-from-the-farm vegetables and fruit virtually door-to door…at wholesale prices, no less. Must be dreaming!
On Saturday, January 28, at 9:30 a.m. the Westgate Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) will launch the Westgate GreenMarket Express, a mobile greenmarket designed to reach its low-income neighborhoods and encourage residents to eat healthy, nutritious food. The Express will travel the streets of Westgate each Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., until April, delivering fresh vegetables and fruit. The top-quality locally-grown produce will be picked Thursday and on the Express Saturday, at prices far below those in supermarkets.
The whimsical Express was designed by greenmarket guru Peter Robinson, president of Mildly Delirious Design, Inc. to appeal to children and adults alike. In addition to the produce, the cart also will provide nutritional information and recipes courtesy of the Palm Beach County Department of Health and an on-board nutritionist.
“The Express will be a visual treat, crossing any cultural or language barrier due to its lighthearted approach, color, and music,” Robinson said. The cart will be going to the residents and will offer a sense of fun and community spirit wherever it appears.”
The Quantum Foundation funded the Express vehicle. There are also discussions to partner with the Westgate CRA to improve nutrition education at Westgate Elementary School using the Greenmarket Express. The program would distribute nutritional information and develop student involvement, including a “name the cucumber” contest. A planting and gardening program is also planned in the future.
“The Quantum Foundation is thrilled to invest in this creative way to get wholesome food to a neighborhood that truly needs it, and the bonus is the lifelong habits that will be developed in the children who are learning healthy food choices,” Kerry Diaz, president, Quantum Foundation said.
Sharon Sheppard, redevelopment specialist at Westgate’s CRA, spearheaded the idea of a greenmarket when neighborhoods in Westgate were declared “food deserts” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A food desert is defined as an area with little or no access to a store that offers fresh produce, whole grains and milk within one mile. The Westgate CRA set out to change the situation quickly and economically. Now they think their open-air mobile greenmarket could revolutionize how cities put fresh fruits and vegetables on the plates of their low-income residents.
“We looked at several permanent locations, but they were still a destination and not reaching our low-income residents who needed fresh produce the most,” Sheppard said. “When Robinson presented the mobile greenmarket idea, it just blew us away.”
“Peter presented the mobile market to our board and their mouths dropped. When he said the Quantum Foundation was going to help sponsor the project, we were doing cartwheels.”
The USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will allow qualified residents to pay with food stamps. The Express will double their produce order at no extra cost. This will encourage low-income residents to purchase from the cart and have fresh vegetables in their homes.
The quality produce for the GreenMarket Express will come from Farming Systems Research, Inc., a 10-acre facility at Green Cay Farms in Boynton Beach, which supplies, among others, The Breakers, Café Boulud and 32 East.
“When we heard about the concept, we thought it was an excellent idea,” Farming Systems Research president Nancy Roe said. “Getting fresh, locally-grown vegetables to the community is what we are about.”
Robinson believes the Westgate GreenMarket Express is the nation’s only open-air, truly mobile greenmarket. Some northern cities have converted old yellow school buses as mobile greenmarkets, but they often do not have locally grown, just-harvested vegetables, the produce can not be seen from outside the bus and they park at various community locations. This makes the Express unique.
“When I was a kid in Canada, we had an “egg man” who would deliver fresh eggs door-to-door and offer whatever else was in season off his truck,” said Robinson. “What he offered was better quality than anything at the store and cheaper! That is what we will be offering to the Westgate community.”