America faces a food crisis. In 2020, the USDA estimated that more than 38 million people lived in food-insecure households, meaning they lacked consistent access to nourishing food. As the pandemic has caused job losses and made precarity a growing reality for more and more people, lines at soup kitchens and food banks have swelled over the last year and a half, covering miles of ground as more than 60 million individuals sought help from free or reduced food programs. Across the country, cities teem with contrasts: On one corner of a neighborhood, a farmers’ market draws shoppers who can afford fresh produce. On the other corner, a mother struggles to feed her children. (Many Americans who need food assistance do not qualify for federal programs such as SNAP.)

These grave facts stand in stark contrast to the harsh realities on the other end of the US food spectrum: Nearly 40 percent of our food supply is wasted, meaning sustenance that could have nourished people instead rots in landfills. In addition, swaths of the US are defined as food deserts, areas where residents have little, or sometimes no, access to affordable, fresh, nutrient-dense foods. “Disproportionately found in high-poverty areas, food deserts create extra, everyday hurdles that can make it harder for kids, families, and communities to grow healthy and strong,” states the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

As a media and educational platform that explores food and its impact on our lives, we cannot look away from this reality. We have an obligation to fight this. To do our part. In this light, we will amplify the voices and efforts of those on the front lines working to eradicate food insecurity and hunger. There is serious work being done to build greater awareness around the gaps in the food system, all led by steadfast workers that stem from various walks spanning various industries, from the restaurant world to the nonprofit sector. In our new series, Prima for Good, we’ll spotlight organizations and individuals doing just that. Up first: The Fresh Approach Mobile Farmers’ Market, which you can learn about below.

Our conversations around food need to expand. We must recognize that with every recipe created, every restaurant visited, and every farmers’ market shopped, people lack equity and access to the most basic human right. We hope this series builds stronger awareness and understanding of the fight we must win until every person has unobstructed, lifelong access to fresh food.

Prima for Good Spotlight: Fresh Approach Mobile Farmers’ Market

Thirteen years ago, the Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association founded Fresh Approach, a non-profit dedicated to bridging the gap between fresh farmers’ market offerings and low-income customers across California's Bay Area. Over the years, Fresh Approach’s programs have evolved in several areas, including community gardening and urban agriculture; nutrition education; and fresh food access, including its Mobile Farmers’ Market program, which it started in 2013.

The Mobile Farmers’ Market concept is simple and positive: Take the freshest, seasonally picked produce grown by local farmers and bring it to nearby communities (mainly those that are low-income and lacking access to fresh foods) at affordable prices—with a 50 percent discount offered to those who qualify for federal assistance benefits (or who identify as needing the benefit). A pint of organic, locally picked strawberries, for instance, costs $1.50. “Every week, we’re providing really high-quality, California-grown produce that’s better than anything nearby,” Fresh Approach food access program director Andy Ollove tells us.

When we spoke with Ollove, he told us about the plight of too many people across the US who lack access—financial, geographical, or both—to fresh produce. He says the concept of putting nourishment on wheels to bridge the gap is one he’s seeing has continued promise. “In the last few years, the mobile farmers’ market model has been quite successful and replicated around the country,” he says. “We are actually working on beginning coalitions around mobile farmers market groups in California and have other partners nationally.”

But as any non-profit proves, the mobile farmers’ market project—albeit promising and positive—is not a sustainable business model and therefore requires grant-funding and activist minds to keep it running. While the federal program has helped shoppers on CalFresh, California’s food stamp program, Ollove says those programs help only about 30 percent of Fresh Approach Mobile Farmers’ Market shoppers. This requires Fresh Approach to continuously fundraise to subsidize the remaining 70 percent of customers who need food or financial assistance.

Considering this, Ollove says shopping locally at your farmers’ market and finding those who are “facilitating the connections between the local farmers and the low-income populations'' is a critical way to support the efforts of nonprofits focused on food equity. “There are groups like us scattered in every city in the country, at least small and mid-size cities,” says Ollove. “They're all in the same ecosystem of improving the food system toward access.”