The mobile market to hit D.C. ' food deserts ' with cool eats

Neighborhoods of Washington DC area considered "food deserts" will soon have access to fresh fruits and vegetables through a converted school bus "Mobile market" courtesy of a local non-profit group, composed of nine restaurants. The market the neighborhood restaurant group on wheels bring healthy food options to communities where the majority of the people who live there is below the poverty line.

Food Deserts have recently been determined by the USDA to be an urban area that is more than a radius 1.6 miles from supermarkets or farmers markets (and more than 10 km in rural areas) as shown on the Food desert Locator Mapinteractive. Eighty-two percent of the nation's food deserts are in urban areas, and many of the people who live in them are based on public transport, which can make spending difficult. There are about 13 million Americans who are considered to live in deserts.

Scheduled to hit the streets in October, the Mobile market, which will run on biodiesel supplied by biofuels DC, will include custom shelving, a tent for shade delicate fruits and vegetables from the Sun, refrigerators and freezers. Bus painted with the help of students from the DC Farm to the network of the Institute, a program designed to bring local, healthy fruits and vegetables in schools in the area, and the bus will be used as an educational tool focused on the benefits of healthy eating and harvested in a sustainable manner.

The absence of fresh fruit and vegetable farmers markets and supermarkets in urban areas often means an abundance of restaurants and fast-food shops, some of which are now accept food stamps — a food expert move as Marion Nestle considered a blow to the nation's poor and a contributing factor to the number of diet-related diseases affecting millions of Americans.

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Biofuelstags:, diet, food deserts, fruit and vegetables, healthy food, , Marion Nestle, mobile market, neighborhood restaurant group, poverty, urban

This entry was published on Friday September 16, 2011 to 12:00 am and is filed under green living, health, , organic, organic food, Live organic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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