Mobile farmers market brings fresh produce to Bay Area communities
CONCORD - An East Bay non-profit is trying to help families eat healthier by bringing fresh food directly to them.
If you ever find yourself at the farmer's market standing behind Ellen Olack, you may want to hurry up and grab what you can.
That's because Olack buys produce by the truckload...literally.
Olack is a manager at Fresh Approach, a non- profit that's steering people to a healthier diet with a farmer's market on wheels.
Olack buys produce at full price and then sells it in areas known as food deserts, where good quality fruits and veggies are hard to come by.
Customers on any kind of government assistance get an automatic 50 percent discount.
"There's a lot of food insecurity here in the Bay Area and with the pandemic a lot of folks who are on the edge of being food insecure are now food insecure."
As awareness for healthy food grows, so has the demand for farmer's markets across the country. But in most cases, they tend to be out of reach for low-income residents both physically and financially.
These days, Olack is busier than ever, making several stops a week, where a line of people is already waiting for her when she arrives.
"We've definitely seen an increase in the number of folks here but also in how much they're purchasing," Olack said.
Beatriz Sanchez said having the farmer's market come to her has been a godsend.
"We are a family of seven so we have Medi-Cal so we can use that discount too which is really good," she said.
For Olack, it's about the look on people's faces when they first notice the price tag.
"I think the most emotional reaction I ever saw was when someone brought their partner and when the partner was told the price she started to cry, which made us cry," she said.
For more information, you can visit Fresh Approach's website at https://www.freshapproach.org.
