MORENO VALLEY: Nonprofit agency launches a mobile grocery

Source: The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.迷你倉Oct. 31--A local nonprofit has just launched a mobile grocery store funded by grants to provide healthy food to low-income folks in rural areas with limited supermarket access.Family Service Association (FSA) rolled out its "Mobile Fresh" pilot program on Thursday, Oct. 31 at its Moreno Valley headquarters, 21250 Box Springs Road. It's the first stop scheduled at 10 of FSA's program sites through December within a 50-mile radius.Veronica Dover, FSA's COO, said she was thrilled at Thursday's turnout: 35 people bought $100 worth of produce, generating the organization $50 in net proceeds. The goal is to reach 50 to 100 people per location."This is our test period, one stop a day, while we're working the kinks out before expanding to several daily sites," said Dom Betro, FSA's president and CEO. The agency is using a modified van for now and the Riverside Food Coop and Sysco for Mobile Fresh's supplies.The purpose is to sell fresh, locally-grown produce, dairy products, bread and dry goods at prices 20 to 30 percent lower than at markets. Selection will focus on whole, unprocessed and the most nutritional foods, Betro said.Mobile Fresh is targeting many of the 25,000 needy families at FSA's 40 service locations, for whom the 60-year-old organization already provides nutrition, children, senior, housing and mental health programs and outre儲存ch."The mobile grocery store has become a very hot concept to address the needs of what are called 'food deserts," Betro said. In areas such as Cabazon, he noted, people pay higher prices to buy milk, groceries and eggs from a liquor or convenience store, because the nearest market is in BanningAlthough these groceries on wheels are popular in many urban areas, deliveries to isolated rural pockets pose more of a challenge -- especially in the Inland area, where FSA's entire services range over a 28,000-square-mile area, Betro said.To get Mobile Fresh up and running, FSA received a total of $125,000 in grants from Cal Freshworks, Kaiser Foundation, Bank of America and Wal-Mart. The latter kicked in $50,000 to assist with the retrofit of the passenger bus that Riverside Transit Authority is donating to transport the food. It will take about a month to convert the vehicle into a traveling grocery stand with shelves and misters, allowing customers to walk on in front and pay at the rear exit, Betro said.Mobile Fresh expects to meet its projected annual operating expenses of $200,000 by making $75,000 a year in produce sales, Dover said.Follow Laurie Lucas on Twitter @LaurieLucas_PE. Check her blog: blog.pe.com/retail/Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.) Visit The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.) at .PE.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesmini storage