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Grocery store on wheels delivers food for thought

By Jacob Dalfen-Brown

The first mobile food market in Toronto was launched on Thursday, Oct. 31, with a grand unveiling in front of Balzac’s on Gould Street.

The Mobile Good Food Market, part of a program that dates back to June 2012, is the first of its kind in Canada and will travel to low-income communities to sell “good quality” fruits and vegetables at prices lower than average supermarkets.

The truck is sponsored by the United Way, the City of Toronto, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and Foodshare, a Toronto-based non-profit organization that addresses food issues around Toronto.

Andrea K., the food leader for the Mornelle Court location (one of seven the truck serves), said the truck will help her community.

“In my particular area, we have a lot of elderly people [whom] we help upstairs with their groceries. They tell us what they want and we get it for them.”

In many of the neighbourhoods that the truck will be serving, the options for produce are very limited and inaccessible, especially for the elderly.

The truck visits the west end on Tuesdays, the east end on Wednesdays and North York on Thursdays.

“The communities we serve are very multicultural so we try to serve their food tastes,” said Andrea. “We have a lot of Caribbean food, a lot of Asian food and South American food.”

The mobile market showcased its diverse range of food at the public unveiling with everything from mangoes to papayas.

Andrea has high hopes for the program’s future. “God willing there will be a fleet of them,” she said. “We serve six or seven communities at the moment. If we even got one or two more trucks we could serve a lot more communities and serve all of them better.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DijkRwFL_0[/youtube]

 

1 Comment

  1. Hi There,

    Great Post! Thanks for sharing this with us.

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