Mobile Farmers Market | Friendship Gardens Charlotte

The Mobile Farmers Market

Page initiated September 2011

It's about the food, not the truck.

It's about access, not profits.

It's about nutrition and health, not exclusivity.

Indeed, the volunteers who make the Friendship Gardens Mobile Farmers Market happen would probably love to stand down as local entrepreneurs take up the task of providing affordable, fresh, even local produce within walking distance of the residents of the so-called "food deserts" of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

Food deserts are large swaths of low-income Charlotte that are not served by a full-service grocery. Residents who depend on nearby convenience stores for their groceries find little in the way of healthful produce for sale.

On this page we'll highlight recent coverage of the comings and goings of the Friendship Gardens Mobile Farmers Market. For the locations of upcoming markets, e-mail Garden Coordinator Henry Owen. Earlier coverage of the Mobile Market project will be found in the Archive.

Sept. 21, 2011

The Mobile Market got some press coverage, first on Tuesday on the Observer's website, then Wednesday in the paper Observer, right.

The news was from Compass Group, which issued a press release headlined, "Compass Group Funds Slow Food Charlotte’s New Mobile Market Truck." More precisely, the Compass grant is helping to purchase food, not a truck.

The press release notes: "The original mobile market will run for six to eight weeks, collecting best practices and establishing community leaders to draw citizens out on market days. 'We hope to use the experience and data to expand the program and add access to SNAP / EBT by next summer. The idea itself is not new as we've been talking about it for some time, and we felt the best way to proceed was to begin,'" the press release quoted Slow Food Charlotte's Thom Duncan as saying.

Sept. 10, 2011

Scenes from at stop on Saturday at the Woodland Hollow Apartments off North Tryon Street.

Photo credit: Allison Mignery, Mecklenburg County Health Department

Aug. 27, 2011

Scenes from a second visit to Dillehay Courts off North Tryon Street.

Curbside nutrition effort hits the streets

First published in the Friendship Trays Weekly, Aug. 22, 2011

There was squash and zucchini, peppers and okra, apples and potatoes, onions and eggplant, corn and herbs and of course tomatoes. And it all was for sale last Saturday, Aug. 20 at bargain prices on the curb in Dillehay Courts, smack in the middle of one of Charlotte's "food deserts."

In the picture above, volunteer Kenneth Lassiter helps customers with their purchases. Lassiter is administrator of the Charlotte Correctional Center, where inmates on his watch turned an unused ball field into a farm. They raised and donated the okra, bell pepper, banana pepper and basil that was on the truck Saturday. The okra sold out.

The Friendship Trays refrigerated truck rolled out from Distribution Street Saturday after months of discussion and planning by a coalition involving the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Council, Slow Food Charlotte and Friendship Trays. A small grant from Compass Group provided start-up funding.

Friendship Trays Executive Director Lucy Bush Carter says that Friendship Trays is providing the truck while other sources offset the gasoline costs. "It's an extension of our traditional mission of boosting the health and nutrition of recipients who are unable to get out for groceries or to prepare their own food."

A recent Food Policy Council-sponsored study by UNCC researchers identified "food desert" areas of the city where residents without their own transportation do not have access to fresh produce. The Mobile Farmers Market will focus initially on serving properties operated by the Charlotte Housing Authority, which has given permission for the Mobile Farmers Market to park and set up shop.

Watch a short YouTube video about the Mobile Farmers Market's first day (It's also posted below).

To volunteer to go aboard the Mobile Farmers Market as it serves neighborhoods in this community, e-mail Henry Owen.

Friendship Gardens Charlotte
Creating local, renewable nutritious food resources for meals-on-wheels recipients
An Initiative of Slow Food Charlotte and Friendship Trays, Inc.

Friendship Trays, 2401-A Distribution St. Charlotte, NC 28203 voice 704-333-9229 fax 704-333-5947
Meals-on-wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC
Delivering, in a caring and friendly manner, balanced meals to individuals in this community
who are unable, because of age or infirmity, to obtain and prepare their own meal
Friendship Trays is a 501(c)(3) organization. Employer ID #56-1201496. Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license
are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at 919-807-2000. The license is not an endorsement by the State.