“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:
- Bike Powered Farm Stand
- BeachGreens may be able to give distribution advice
- LBCAP Spring St. Farm could be a good market partner
- Farmer’s Markets would be a good source
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.