Movable Feast Will Promote Healthy Foods: Garden Group Plans to Outfit Truck to Bring Fresh Produce to Residents of Urban Areas

By Danielle Furfaro, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Jan. 19–TROY — Driving to the grocery store to get food seems completely normal. Yet just a few decades ago, vendors went to the consumers, delivering items such as milk, bread and eggs directly to doorsteps.

Starting this spring, Capital District Community Gardens will revive that tradition, delivering fresh produce where it is least accessible — the inner cities.

The group received a five-year, $500,000 grant from the state Health Department to help with costs of its Veggie Mobile program, which will bring low-cost — and in some cases free — produce to the Arbor Hill neighborhood in Albany, the North Central neighborhood in Troy and the Hamilton Hill and Goose Hill neighborhoods of Schenectady.

“A lot of us take for granted that we can jump in our cars anytime we want and go to a grocery store,” said Amy Klein, CDCG executive director. “If you are a low-income person and don’t have access to a vehicle, those things become very difficult and make accessing fresh food a tremendous effort.”

The group’s program will be twofold: A CDCG truck will sell locally grown produce at wholesale prices, making regular stops on inner-city streets. The truck will also visit public housing complexes in Albany, Schenectady and Troy on weekends, allowing residents to taste produce and take what they want for free.

“We’ll have cooking demonstrations and recipes to take home,” Klein said. “We’ll give them the opportunity to try fruits and vegetables they might not be familiar with.”

The Health Department grant will cover startup and staffing costs, but will not pay for the truck. CDCG is raising the $55,000 it will need for that. The group will use funds raised at its annual Garden Bowl, to be held Jan. 27 at Uncle Sam Lanes in Troy, for that effort.

CDCG plans to purchase the large box truck this week, then install solar panels, refrigeration units and a sound system and have a large mural painted on the side. Klein hopes to have the program up and running by March.

CDCG got the inspiration from a similar program in Oakland, Calif., called The People’s Grocery, said Klein.

Tina Urzan, head of Friends of North Central Troy, remembers the egg man going door to door when she was a child growing up in the city.

“Back then, a lot of families didn’t have two cars,” said Urzan. “Here, a lot of people don’t have cars.”

CDCG staff members conducted informal surveys of inner-city corner stores to see if they carried any healthy foods. Generally, they found nothing other than prepackaged items chock-full of preservatives, fats and sodium.

“Almost none of them have any produce available,” said Klein. “If they did, it’s one banana they are selling for a dollar. These are the factors that lead to childhood obesity.”

Keith Buhrmaster, owner of Buhrmaster Family Farms in Scotia, said he was glad to participate in the project.

“People today, they don’t know where their food comes from anymore,” Buhrmaster said. “If they don’t understand and don’t appreciate that we grow food here in this country, we are going to be in trouble down the road.”

In addition to buying from local farmers, the Veggie Mobile will help give away food donated to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York.

“We get produce all the time that comes in such a large quantity, we have to find ways to move it quickly,” said the food bank’s executive director, Mark Quandt. Furfaro can be reached at 454-5097 or by e-mail at dfurfaro@timesunion.com. for dollarsThe Capital District Community Gardens will hold its annual Garden Bowl fundraiser later this month. Some of the money raised will go toward the purchase of the Veggie Mobile, which will be used to bring produce to inner city neighborhoods. What: The Garden BowlWhen: 2:30 p.m. Jan. 27Where: Uncle Sam Lanes, Troy

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Copyright (c) 2007, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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