Lettuce Eat Mobile Market Development

Update: As of April 2021, your contributions have supported the distribution of food to 2,151 households across Atlanta serving 6,579 adults and children in 29 zip codes. THANK YOU!!!

In the United States, 24 million people live in food deserts, and nearly half of them live in low-income households. The USDA defines a food desert as an area which lacks access to a variety of affordable and healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy. Looking only at Georgia, nearly 1.5 million adults and half a million children live in food deserts in both urban and rural settings. Food insecure adults and children are at a significantly higher risk for chronic disease and other negative health outcomes than food secure individuals. The average rate of obesity in the U.S. has exponentially increased since 1990 from 11% to almost 42.4% in 2018 and continues to trend upward. Healthy behaviors are often limited by an individual’s environment and other social determinants of health. An analysis of mobile market studies concluded that when scaled up in under-resourced neighborhoods, affordable mobile farmer’s markets can not only increase self-efficacy of healthy eating but also reduce geographically based health disparities related to health outcomes and fruit and vegetable consumption. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic the issue of food insecurity effected 12% of Georgians including 16% of children in Georgia (Atlanta Community Food Bank, 2020). Since Covid-19 arrived in Georgia there has been a 300% increase in requests for food assistance (Atlanta Community Food Bank, 2020). The Community Guide (2017) and County Health Ranking and Roadmaps recommend implementing a multicomponent mobile food market intervention in order to increase affordable access to quality foods, increase fruit and vegetable consumption, increase food security, and to improve health disparities.

Lettuce Eat Mobile Market (LEMM) is a “farmer’s market on wheels” that aims to reduce health disparities in low-income and food desert communities in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. The mission of Lettuce Eat is to eliminate food access barriers and assist in reducing chronic disease risk factors by increasing access to affordable quality food and education in underserved communities in Atlanta. LEMM will implement theory-driven, research-based and multicomponent strategies to improve health outcomes in the communities served. The mobile market concept is an evidence-based and tested strategy to address access to healthy food options by bringing fresh produce into low-income communities with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. By placing the farmer’s markets in locations that are accessible, the healthy choice becomes the default choice.

Below are the items necessary for implementing the market and their costs which amount to our target fundraising goal. LEMM will continue to work with partners to provide food resources.

Please contact Info@lettuceeat.org with questions!

Thank you!

A. Equipment: Shuttle Bus & Retrofits ($25,000), Repairs/Maintenance ($5,500), Side-awnings & Shelves ($1,000), Refrigeration Units ($4,000), Generator & Installation ($1,000)

B. Supplies: Produce & Daily Maintenance Items ($2,240)

C. Communications and Marketing: Truck Wrapping and Design, Signage, Brochures, Health Education Materials and Promotional Items ($12,037)

D. Technology: Sale Items ($530)

E. Administration and Operations: Nonprofit General Liability Insurance ($444), Commercial Auto Insurance ($1,800), Social Security and Medicare Tax ($1,193.40)

F.   Additional Costs: Fuel Usage ($940.80)

Total Development Expense: $55,685.20