Solar & Biodiesel powered Mobile Market delivers Organic Food in Oakland

source: Putsata Reang CCTIMES 2003.8.09

Getting to the grocery store from Ethel Baldasarre's West Oakland apartment would take most folks only a dollar and a six-minute bus ride. But on 63-year-old feet worn by years of hard work, the entire trip can take Baldasarre half a day.

"When you get to a certain age, it's hard," said Baldasarre, a retired longshorewoman. "It's tiresome. It takes too long just to go to Safeway, and I don't want to beg nobody to get to the store."

In two weeks, Baldasarre will have a new alternative to her twice-a-week visits to the supermarket: The groceries will come to her.

It's called the "Mobile Market" -- a solar-powered delivery truck* rigged with shelves, coolers and crates that will cruise West Oakland selling organic produce, snacks and bulk foods. It's the latest innovation in making organic food, with its elitist reputation, accessible to low-income people in a corner of the country notorious for advancing organic eating.

The movable market, which will sell seasonal produce from local farmers, is the brainchild of three community activists who saw a dearth of healthy food in West Oakland, where liquor stores stake claims on every other corner and supermarkets are scarce.

"We were here living in West Oakland and knew access to food is really a major issue," said Brahm Ahmadi, a co-founder. "West Oakland has 30,000 residents, one grocery store and 40 liquor stores. So we developed this concept: Let's bring the food to them."

The grocery van is one of three programs run by the People's Grocery, a recently established nonprofit organization founded by Ahmadi, 28, and two friends, Malaika Edwards, 28, and Leander Sellers, 25.

Their idea isn't entirely original. Similar trucks in the Los Angeles area drive through Latino neighborhoods selling everything from cantaloupe to candy.

But the Mobile Market, which will sell an assortment of seasonal produce from local farmers and foods such as organic potato chips and black-eyed peas, is believed to be the first of its kind in the Bay Area.

"It's like a mini farmers market in your neighborhood," said Alice Waters, owner of Berkeley's Chez Panisse restaurant and a notable leader of the Slow Food movement that focuses on saving the artisan culture surrounding food. "It's a great way to efficiently present something that could be very beautiful and affordable to people who may not have any other opportunities."

Poor neighborhoods have long struggled to attract grocery stores, as chain retailers prefer the less expensive route of building new stores in suburban strip malls, said Andy Fisher, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition, which promotes family farms.

"What's happened then is that people can't get to supermarkets because they're few and far in between," Fisher said, adding: "The corner stores don't stock a full variety of foods, and the prices are outrageous."

But food on the Mobile Market will be affordable, Ahmadi says.

When it started in 2001, the People's Grocery received $189,000 in grants from the Columbia Foundation, among other social justice foundations. Part of the money was used to help launch the Mobile Market, and a smaller amount will be used to help offset the higher premium set on organic food -- something that Ahmadi says is essential to lure prospective customers.

Food researchers say bringing healthy food to residents is an idea whose time has come.

"Organic appeals to all economic strata and urban, suburban and rural people, but the food system infrastructure is not necessarily set up to deliver it," said Bob Scowcroft, executive director of the Santa Cruz-based Organic Farming Research Foundation. "The fact that entrepreneurs are taking it to the next step is fantastic."

West Oakland residents -- most notably seniors who have a hard time getting around -- heartily agree.

"It's perfect for me," Baldasarre said. "I'll be the first to sign up!"

Sidney Kelsey, who grew up in Nashville, Tenn., said the Mobile Market is a throwback to the 1930s and '40s, when few families owned cars and produce trucks were the standard.

"They had a market come to your house almost every day," said Kelsey, 69, a retired city maintenance worker. "They had a scale to weigh the peas, the okra, the squash, any vegetable you can think of. It was really convenient."

Beyond the convenience of getting fresh food, Baldasarre says she supports the program because it hires neighborhood teenagers to do something good in the community.

"This will keep the kids out of trouble, too," Baldasarre said.

Besides the Mobile Market, the People's Grocery runs two other projects -- a program aimed at creating more urban community gardens, and another program where youths are paid and taught how to grow, cook and market their own food.

Under the Collards 'n' Commerce program, eight teenagers from West Oakland high schools spend a year in business and personal finance classes, and work in one of five community patches. They'll sell the food they grow via the Mobile Market.

Cindy Villanueva, 18, who recently graduated from McClymonds High School, said the program has taught her how to eat healthier and more conscientiously.

"I could eat McDonald's every day," Villanueva said. "They teach us what fast food will do to us. We're shortening our lives and we don't even know it."

That same awareness has inspired Tia Anderson, 15, to teach her family and friends about the need to improve their diets.

"My friends eat spinach in a can, so when they see spinach in the garden they ask, 'What's that?'" said Anderson, who attends McClymonds. "We need good food. We have to bring more organic food here."

Ahmadi sees the Mobile Market as a stepping stone to a future cooperative health food store that would become a permanent fixture in West Oakland. The grocery van will operate three times a week at first, and possibly more depending on its popularity, Ahmadi said.

"Any creative concept to address the issue is worth a shot," Ahmadi said. "We're taking a risk. It might be a cornball idea. If it's not successful, we're going to pull out the next experiment."

*Add note from Brahm Ahmadi: "The solar system in the Mobile Market is used to run our refrigeration. Eventually we plan to also connect our sound system to it and, perhaps, add a PA system as well. Initially we had debated whether to get a solar system or just install some rechargeable batteries that we could charge at night. Once we realized that a rechargeable battery system would cost us half of what a solar system would cost we decided to invest in our beliefs and go for the more sustainable technology. We also chose solar to help educate residents of West Oakland about alternative energy. The Mobile Market also runs on biodiesel to present an alternative for the 10,000+ diesel semi-trucks that pass through West Oakland everyday."