FRESH PRODUCEMARKETS
Mobile Produce Truck
The Food Bank’s mobile produce truck is built to be a full-service farmer’s market on wheels with the flexibility to visit dozens of neighborhood sites including schools, libraries, wellness centers, senior living facilities, and veteran’s gatherings across Monterey County. Our mobile produce truck has quickly become our most popular and innovative program for ensuring that residents are getting fresh, nutritious, free produce.
We work with local organic farmers and Ag companies to stock our mobile produce truck, ensuring fresh produce flexibility that can be targeted to our most vulnerable communities and provide access in ‘produce deserts’ that exist across Monterey County.
Families can select the produce they like and need; there are no pre-packed produce bags. Food distributed consists of fresh locally grown produce such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, celery, leeks, lettuce, Portobello mushrooms, scallions and strawberries.
The Family Market Program
The Family Market Program, which runs from April through October, provides fresh produce and dairy goods to our service population. It operates like a Farmers’ Market, but free of charge.
We also distribute fruit and vegetables from all over the state, including potatoes, onions, avocados, and various stone fruit. This food is available through a program called Farm to Family, sponsored by the California Association of Food Banks and designed to facilitate produce distribution to the 40+ food banks within the state.
The Family Market provides an ideal venue to receive information on nutrition, Food Stamps and other health and human services programs available to low-income Monterey County residents.
A recent survey of our Family Market clients revealed that 98% of recipients
eat more fruit & vegetables because of this program.
Farmworker Mobile Pantries
California has the country’s most productive and diverse agriculture industry, and farmers in Monterey County are among the hardest working and most committed. But farmers here are vulnerable to many challenges and economic stressors. Farmworker families and parents have little time to shop for fresh produce and typically live far away from standard grocery stores. Our Mobile Farmworker pantries aim to get free, fresh, healthy produce to them at a place and time that is convenient and easily accessible.
