Mobile Produce Stand

“I got Okra, I got Collards,” shouts New Orleans’ Mr. Okra, a roving produce store on wheels.

Long Beach is ripe for a similar development of a mobile produce stand who picks up fresh local vegetables and fruits and deliver them to a dense network of restaurants and pop-up markets in Long Beach.

Goals:

  • To create a hyper-local distribution system for farm-fresh, picked-daily local produce
  • To create a buzz around local food
  • To jump-start a new local business solution to our distribution problem
  • To get food into under-serviced areas and make “the healthy choice, the easy choice”

What We Need:

  • To identify a committed individual to run the routes and build the relationships
  • Investors and donations towards the social enterprise
  • Farms, Distributors, Restaurant and Buyers willing to participate

Resources:

Latest Status:

  • 5/12/14 Feeders discussed need for mobile produce
  • 9/20/14 Discovered that the California FreshWorks Fund is applicable to this project
  • 10/2/14 Kelli Johnson expressed interest in heading this project and asked us to call a meeting of those who’d expressed interest in this topic including Valerie Smith, Amy Eriksen and Bret O’Connor.
  • 11/14/14 Met with Kelli Johnson, Valerie Smith and the California FreshWorks fund to explore innovation funding and loans for bringing healthy food access to food deserts in Long Beach.
  • 1/30/15 Met with mothers at the Cabrillo High School parent center who expressed interest in a morning pop-up market for shopping as they drop off their student in the morning. The mothers indicated they would be looking for kale and items for “juicing.”
  • 5/1/15 Working with Gloria Cannon and Kelli Johnson on a Salesforce.com grant to build a mobile farmstand
  • 5/12/15 We heard that Kress Market is interested in developing a farmstand
  • 7/24/15 Long Beach Farms partnered with volunteers from Salesforce to build their mobile produce stand
  • 8/01/2018 Long Beach Community Table took on the project concept, created a non-profit status, and began donation-based food distribution and fundraising to get a truck

Get Involved:

Read the latest status, think about how you want to get involved, and contact us.