Fort Worth Rolls Out Veggie-To-Curbside Delivery Service

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Ice cream trucks may soon have competition on their neighborhood routes in the way of carrots and lettuce.

A new plan moving forward in the city of Fort Worth would allow for mobile produce vendors to bring fresh vegetable and fruits right to your curb.

Linda Fulmer, is the executive director of Healthy Tarrant County, one of the several agencies backing this plan.

Fulmer said the move is "also creating an opportunity for those people who don't have access to fresh produce to have access in a convenient location."

Specifically she said southeast Fort Worth has the biggest need for this kind of service.

"Those are zip codes that have higher prevalence of obesity chronic disease and diabetes, and they have very few grocery stores."

Currently there is one woman, Beverly Thomas of Cold Springs Farm running what she calls her Veggie Van. It's packed with vegetables she grows locally on her own farm. Currently she is restricted to only distributing to existing members or customers and she can only do it on commercially zoned areas.

If the new plan is approved by city officials in March, she said her business would boom because she would be able to sell to new customers on the spot all throughout the city.

Thomas said her goal is to get more people in Fort Worth eating healthy.

"If I can get people to eat locally grown, they're going to be healthier," she said.

A community meeting to talk about the proposal will take place February 10 ahead of an early March city council vote on the measure.

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