Mobile farmers market wants to make healthy food accessible, affordable

This wasn't a typical trip to the grocery store for North Charleston resident Deborah Jefferson.

On a Tuesday morning, she boarded a bright green school bus that has been transformed into a mobile farmers market.

She picked out some sweet potatoes and squash to cook and share with other residents at the Horizon Village apartments.

For the 65-year-old, the Lowcountry Street Grocery has been a godsend. She is now able to buy fresh food on a limited income.  

"A lot of things you want, you can't buy (at the supermarket)," she said. "You got to pinch. The (mobile) market is a help. You'd be surprised of the people who come here who need these things." 

The street grocery, which started in 2014, makes stops around the Peninsula, West Ashley, James Island, Daniel Island and North Charleston. 

Lindsey Barrow Jr., founder and director of the Lowcountry Street Grocery, said it is a community business that relies on developing relationships with customers and local growers.  

"We use self-sustaining business tools to address the problem, rather than rely on a cyclical model based on grants and donations," he said. "We simply provide a service where there is a demand for more healthy, local food."

Food deserts

Operations like the mobile market can help improve food access in the Charleston area, where some residents live in "food deserts," or areas far removed from healthier food options and grocery stores. 

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a food desert is an area where more than a third of residents live more than a mile from a supermarket in the city or 10 miles from one in a rural town.

In Charleston County, most areas of North Charleston, Awendaw, McClellanville and parts of West Ashley are considered food deserts, according to a USDA map that used 2015 Census data. 

For residents in those areas with a limited income, buying fresh and healthy foods can be difficult and expensive. This is a problem that Lowcountry Street Grocery is trying to address. 

On one recent July day, Barrow welcomed the handful of people to the mobile market, which was set up in the Tricounty Family Ministries parking lot in North Charleston.

Everyday produce such as corn sells for $.45 an ear; squash and zucchini goes for $1.90 per pound; and bananas are $.35 each. 

Aboard the bus, shoppers can also buy eggs, ground beef and other foods from local farms and producers. 

SNAP assistance

Customers who receive assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called SNAP, or food stamps, are able to afford even more at the mobile market. 

A statewide program called Health Bucks lets SNAP recipients use their benefits to buy fresh produce at farmers markets. With a $5 purchase using SNAP money, people can get $10 worth of fruits and vegetables from the market. Lowcountry Street Grocery is one of four farmers markets in Charleston participating in the program. 

Krystal Brown, coordinator of the state's Healthy Bucks program, said the department is working to eliminate the stigma of receiving assistance and to encourage people to eat fresh and local. 

“They’re able to learn how to stretch their dollars," Brown said. "We talk about healthy food, but we give them a way to utilize their funds.”

On average, South Carolina SNAP recipients get $261 a month to buy groceries, according to the Department of Social Services. The level of SNAP benefits people receive depends on the number of members in a household. 

As of June, Richland County had nearly 62,000 people receiving SNAP benefits, the most in the state. Greenville and Charleston counties had the second and third highest number of SNAP recipients. 

'Trial by error'

When the mobile market first began, people didn't understand its model and doubted that it would work, Barrow said.

Several months ago, the street grocery began running full time. 

"Since we don’t have any real template to follow, much of what we do is based on trial by error," he said. "Research can take you a very long way, but you won’t really know what you’re getting into until the rubber meets the road."

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