Food Deserts Won't be Quenched by Mobile Markets

Adele Peters of Fast Co.Exist examines mobile food markets, looking particularly at Mobile Good Food Market, a wheelchair-accessible bus converted into a traveling food stand that brings healthy, fresh food into Toronto's food deserts.

Although it is stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables, the system has a few major shortcomings. For one, the capacity of the bus limits the amount of people who can shop at any given time, inhibiting it from running during the coldest weather. Timing is also a huge factor, as discussed by Debbie Field, the executive director for the organization FoodShare Toronto that runs the bus, "If you're there and you can come for one hour, it's like a needle in a haystack... How do you get there when people are going to be there, so there's enough density, enough people to shop?"

However, Peters writes that the mobile market shows the neighborhood demand, which spurred Toronto residents to start their own community-run markets selling produce bought from FoodShare Toronto. These are generally more successful, as they can be open for several hours a day.