{"id":46568,"date":"2018-11-24T16:17:17","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T23:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=46568"},"modified":"2021-02-08T08:07:15","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T15:07:15","slug":"community-mobile-market-brings-fresh-produce-to-food-deserts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/11\/24\/community-mobile-market-brings-fresh-produce-to-food-deserts\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Mobile Market brings fresh produce to food deserts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Feel Good Food: <\/strong>Rob Ironside, leader of the Community Mobile Market, samples some of his wares in Calgary on Oct. 10, 2018. Ironside is the Community Mobile Market lead and travels to different food deserts in the city, selling fresh fruits and vegetables at a reduced price. (Photo by Megan Maher\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

F<\/span>ood deserts are prevalent in the city of Calgary, but the Community Mobile Food Market<\/a> (CMFM) aims to help these areas by bringing fresh produce to people with reduced mobility.<\/p>\n

A<\/span> subsidiary of the food waste reduction program Rescue Food<\/a>, CMFM was created by Lourdes Juan, a development consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a problem that I saw and I thought I could be part of the solution,\u201d said Juan.<\/p>\n

Rescue Food\u2019s Leftovers program picks up unused food from various grocery stores and restaurants, and takes the raw ingredients to 28 different service agencies.<\/p>\n

In May, CMFM partnered with the City of Calgary\u2019s Affordable Housing<\/a> to bring groceries at a reduced price to people with limited access to fresh produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour million Canadians don\u2019t have food security, yet we waste almost 50 per cent of food we import into the country,\u201d said Rob Ironside, team lead of CMFM.<\/p>\n

Some of the food deserts CMFM goes to are Forest Lawn, East Village<\/a>, and Sunalta, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we initially got funded, it was going to be one night a week, eight markets a month,\u201d said Ironside.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019re close to 30 markets a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary\u2019s Affordable Housing recognizes the communities that don\u2019t have access to affordable, fresh, nutritious food, and asks CMFM to set up a market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t show up and tell people, \u2018We\u2019re a service that you need.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only respond to requests,\u201d said Ironside.<\/p>\n

The future of CMFM is expansion, growth, and eventually providing different services to communities in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to operate in every city and collaborate with as many nonprofits as we can,” said Juan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly want to be everywhere but it will be a slow growth process to make sure we\u2019re doing everything right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The item prices are greatly reduced when compared to regular grocery stores, with a loaf of bread only costing $1.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our food is purchased at whole sale, but we don\u2019t mark it up as much as other people,\u201d said Ironside.<\/p>\n

Volunteers make up most of Rescue Food\u2019s workforce, with only four paid people in the entire organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be where we are without our volunteers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a self-sustainable social enterprise,\u201d said Ironside.<\/p>\n

Taylor Robinson is a student at Mount Royal University<\/a>, and is completing a practicum with Rescue Food.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we have so much food but people are still going hungry?\u201d said Robinson.<\/p>\n

A part of CMFM is going to areas of the city where there is a large senior population.<\/p>\n

Often, travelling to the store can take a large part of the day, and can be dangerous in the winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cDealing with senior isolation is on our minds, and dealing with access to nutritious food is on our minds,\u201d said Ironside.<\/p>\n

CMFM has created a bond between the community members, with more people showing up each week.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, we had five seniors show up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week, we have over 40,\u201d said Ironside.<\/p>\n

Many of the seniors living in these food deserts like to help the CMFM crew set up tables and break down boxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people really enjoy being part of a community,\u201d said Robinson.<\/p>\n

CMFM runs Monday to Friday, taking a break every second Thursday. Volunteers are encouraged to sign up via the Rescue Food website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone can contribute to food recovery in every city because there is not a city that doesn\u2019t have a food waste problem,\u201d said Juan.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Crate Selection: <\/strong>Residents of East Village’s Murdoch Manor pore over available goods from the Community Mobile Market in Calgary on Oct. 10, 2018. East Village is a food desert, and the Community Mobile Market brings fresh fruits and vegetables to communities with reduced mobility. (Photo by Megan Maher\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Food deserts are prevalent in the city of Calgary, but the Community Mobile Food Market (CMFM) aims to help these areas by bringing fresh produce to people with reduced mobility. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":46584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S2 Community Mobile Market ","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,1106],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-46568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-city","8":"category-east-village","9":"category-physical-health-and-wellness"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46568"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47731,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46568\/revisions\/47731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}