Updated 04/12/2013
Make sure you also check out the excellent segment Joe Mauceri of PIX11 did on the Veggie Mobile Market as well as Patrick Wall of DNAinfo!
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With the warm weather approaching, the sounds of ice cream trucks are sure to fill the air as the chirping of the birds in the morning. Trucks offering such delights are nothing new. Heck, we even have lunch and dinner trucks throughout the city serving up full fledged meals. But imagine a mobile Veggie Market that brings you the very important items that are often missing in your neighborhood, particularly economically depressed neighborhoods like Hunts Point, and really, the rest of the South Bronx. That’s exactly what Bronxite, Tanya Fields, is working on. Tanya is the epitome of a Bronx entrepreneur who, after years of frustration that comes with trying to raise a family on a healthy diet – something that seems anathema to local supermarkets and the infrastructure of our neighborhoods, left her job to battle against this injustice. Besides her beautiful children, food justice is her passion and she started on this battlefront from the ground up (literally AND pun intended). Through education and guerilla farming, by taking underdeveloped and neglected lots, she has taught the people that you can take control of your food supply. Let’s face it, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, we live in the poorest congressional district in the nation. A neighborhood plagued by obesity, hypertension, heart disease and hunger. As ironic as these combination of issues seem, the ultimate irony lies in the fact that Hunts Point and the Bronx is home to the largest food distribution center in the nation and indeed one of the largest in the world. All this wonderful food from meats, fish and poultry to fruits, vegetables and all sorts of produce of the highest quality and caliber comes into this neighborhood – but never gets to the tables of the folks who live here. The food is carted in and out of the area via trucks that contribute to one of the highest rates of asthma in the country. People are being killed by these trucks in pedestrian accidents. They are dying from the asthma.
With the Veggie Mobile Market all that can change. Fresh produce will be delivered by a solar powered school bus that runs on veggie oil! The Veggie Mobile Market isn’t just about delivering fresh produce but it will serve as an educational experience as it will have several vita-mixes to introduce folks to healthier living by way of green smoothies and drinks.
I rarely ask readers to invest in anything but if you have a spare $1, $5, $10, $100 or whatever you can, please consider in INVESTING in our community’s health and future. This entire project just needs $15,000 and they have already raised almost $2,500. $15K is a drop in the bucket compared to $127 million in tax subsidies that are given out to programs that will not benefit our communities.
Check out out the link below to see more about the Veggie Mobile Market and hear what Tanya Fields and others have to say about the issues!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-veggie-mobile-market