Gorge Grown Mobile Farmers' Market
The MOBILE MARKET is on the road again in 2010!
Imagine fresh produce: blueberries and lettuce and beans and cherries and tomatoes and more - grown around the Gorge and picked fresh, available every weekend in rural Gorge communities.
This summer, we're making that a reality! From July 4 - September 6, GGFN will be filling our 14-foot box truck each weekend with locally-grown produce from farmers all around the Gorge and then sell on Saturdays and Sundays at designated weekly sites. We welcome other Gorge small farmers and backyard gardeners to join us on site and sell their own produce.
The goal of the Gorge Grown Mobile Farmers' Market is twofold: to increase local market opportunities for small farmers in the Gorge region and to increase access to locally-grown fresh foods for rural Gorge communities.
The mobile market accepts SNAP/Food Stamps and debit cards too!
Find the market at these sites from JULY 4 - SEPTEMBER 6:
SATURDAYS
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Stevenson, WA: 9 AM - 12 PM, downtown (next to the Chamber of Commerce)
Wishram, WA: SCHEDULE COMING SOON
SUNDAYS
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Maupin, OR: 9 AM - 1 PM, downtown
Our Mobile Farmers’ Market is a community food enterprise entering its third season this summer. Currently the Mobile visits 3-4 communities in a given summer season, all of which lack farmers’ markets, and most of which lack full service grocery stores. We bring the Mobile Market to communities where there is both a need for fresh produce and where community members come to us for support. Each Mobile site has a community team that meets regularly before the season and helps us decide when to come, where to set up, and what the community most needs in terms of food items. We purchase produce at a fair price from regional farmers and sell it market-style in each community. We welcome backyard gardeners and small farmers to set up alongside us, and we adjust our sourcing to not directly compete on products that these local growers bring to the market.
The Mobile Market has acted as a market catalyst to develop community-specific solutions in underserved communities that meet their specific needs: in Stevenson, WA (pop 1,400), the weekly Mobile visit has involved into a thriving small farmers’ market, and we will be training 2 managers this summer in preparation for this to be the last season they need our help. In Mosier, OR (pop 490), the bustling Mobile Market site convinced a
local entrepreneur there was enough local demand for him to start and succeed with Jim’s Produce Stand; this year we’ll help him source produce but won’t need to make our weekly stop – Jim’s got what Mosier needs! In Maupin, OR (pop 411) our Mobile Market has been a crucial local market in a community where residents must drive over 40 miles to reach a grocery store and where the local convenience store stocks only chips and soda. Because we accept food stamps and WIC vouchers, families can visit our market when they are short on gas money to get to the store.
The Mobile was born out of a community meeting and piloted in 2008 with the help of local donors. We purchased a 1994 Ford box truck, outfitted it with coolers, shelves, and a reconfigured stand-up freezer unit, and hit the road. For the past two years we have operated the Mobile like a business: it requires only a small amount of outside funding (approximately $5,000) to break even based on revenue. But as the economic activity generated at each Mobile Market has grown, with beginning farmers seeing their sales increase and gaining confidence in
their ability to succeed, so has demand grown for our assistance to help these farmers scale up and access additional market opportunities in the region, and for us to help communities develop more consistent local outlets for fresh produce that are accessible to all – the Mobile only runs during the summer but could expand its season as producer capacity grows.
Questions? Comments? Contact us.
This project has been made possible by financial support from the Oregon Investment Board, the Washington Investment Fund, Columbia Gorge Family Medicine, the Mid-Columbia Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Delcarpine Automotive, and the Harry Chapin Foundation / World Hunger Year.
