MAP Attends the 2021 Mobile Market Summit

 

On April 1st and 2nd of 2021, Danielle Rovillo (Markets Director), Meghan Dawe & Karine Amato (Market Coordinators), and Susan Petty (MAP Intern from Daemen College) attended the 3rd Annual Mobile Market Summit. This two-day, virtual event was organized by Veggie Van, an organization that created an evidence based toolkit for mobile produce market programs through years of hands-on research. The Summit featured sessions addressing the current needs of mobile market operators, information for funders and those seeking funding, current mobile market research, and information on the larger food policy environment that informs our work. 

With the spotlight 2020 put on everything from racial inequality to food insecurity, the Mobile Market Summit was an amazing way to network, share best practices, and learn about the future of food access. 

DeVita Davison

DeVita Davison, the Executive Director of FoodLab Detroit, opened with a keynote address that focused on our country's successes and opportunities in addressing food security. 2020 demonstrated our robust food bank and pantry system’s ability to provide food. She noted that between April and December of 2020, 6.1 billion pounds of food was distributed vs 4 billion from the previous year. The USDA spent $6 billion dollars on produce, dairy and meat products for the Coronavirus Food Assistant Program (CFAP). So with all this food, why is there still hunger? “Hunger is about access and power, not a lack of food.” COVID revealed the opportunities in our food system such as structural poverty, institutionalized racism, and food's connection to health, equality and power. African Americans were disproportionately impacted by COVID due to a high number of service based jobs and a higher incidence of comorbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer. Out of the $6 billion dollars from CFAP, a barely noticeable 0.01% of that money went to black farmers. 

This and many other obstacles are a side affect of Food Apartheid, a term coined by Karen Washington to explain the root causes of hunger in historically marginalized communities. “What I would rather say instead of “food desert” is “food apartheid”, because “food apartheid” looks at the whole food system, along with race, geography, faith, and economics. You say “food apartheid” and you get to the root cause of some of the problems around the food system.”

So what do we do now? Veggie Van focuses their model to address multiple dimensions of access, including availability, affordability, accessibility, acceptability, and accommodation. MAP has focused on much of the same, with emphasis on food system equity and access to culturally-appropriate food. 

With the conference attendees ranging from Maine to California to Canada, we heard from many different speakers about how their markets address these obstacles and have adapted to 2020. Roberta Cosentino from Pennsylvania's Chester County Food Bank and Fresh2You Mobile Market have been focusing for years on incentives and resources to combat the root causes of poverty including cooking classes, raised bed gardens, farmers from the community on staff. Fresh2You converted their markets in 2020 from customers picking their own produce to market employees picking and packing requested food. Josh Trautwein from About Fresh in Boston MA, who focuses on health systems partnership and increasing purchasing power of low income customers, created a new Fresh Box program that allowed them to distribute 100,000 boxes in the last year, many of which were direct to doorstep.  Matthew Kleinmann of Kansas City, Kansas explained how the residents on their council have taken on decision making and power to eventually ownership of the Dotte Mobile Grocer. 

At MAP, we implemented a deli-style service model at our Mobile Market locations and worked closely with Rich Family Foundation to ensure equity among those experiencing hardships due to COVID. The All Access Pass made it possible for folks to receive support on their purchases when they needed it the most. We even added an affordable produce box at a few locations to speed up transactions and reduce our footprint in small spaces. We learned that our best practices were right in line with our colleagues in the mobile market industry. 

How does a community-run organization such as Dotte Mobile Grocer measure impact? In Elyse Guidas and Matthew Kleinmann’s interactive session on engagement, we, as the audience, responded about the level of public participation now and where we wanted to go. Currently, 65% of participants feel that they are currently at the Consult or Involve phase. In the future state, 77% of participants want to work toward Collaborate and Empower. The consensus is markets that are truly connected to the people they serve are better positioned to reach and lift up the community.

IPA2 Spectrum of Public Participation

So how do we get there? At MAP, we do a ton of listening. We work very hard to get to know the communities we visit. We ask questions, share experiences and hold space for those who stop by our market stand. We also strive to build strong connections with community partners. Our Mobile Market only visits communities we are invited to and we do so by building a partnership with a community-based organization such as community centers, healthcare providers, schools or faith-based institutions. We continue to implement new strategies to better serve our customers and give our program a tune up each year. Collectively, we work to advance the state of Mobile Markets across the nation by establishing a mobile market coalition, continuing the evidence-based research on market impact with Veggie Van, and networking together with service providers, farmers, and customers. But the most important thing moving forward is to practice hope. DeVita Davison left us with a quote by James Baldwin that gives her the motivation to continue striving to build a better food system , “Hope is invented everyday.”

Keep hoping!