The Unforgettable vegetables

In North Carolina alone, there are 349 food deserts, affecting over 1.5 million residents. Food deserts are geographic areas with limited or no access to healthy, affordable food. Food deserts often occur in low-income neighborhoods, because of socioeconomic factors like poverty, no access to vehicles, and lack of public transportation. In the Charlotte metro region, many NGO (non-governmental organizations) and community food rescue programs are trying to solve the food desert problem, but are struggling to reach the impacted people. How might we, Project Unforgettable Vegetables, increase access to healthy food to the people in the food desert area so that people are more food secure in the Charlotte Metro Region in 2023 and beyond?

Adaption of Plan

In our original plan, our goal was to bring fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy in mobile food carts. Arabbers would operate an ice cream truck-type model to the West Blvd area in the Charlotte Metro Region. We realized that the arabbers model alone was not sustainable, because we would need a lot of arabbers to support such a large community, who would need to be compensated for their work. We estimated that this would take $100,000/month, which proved unsustainable for us to keep raising funds regularly. So, we decided to create an SNAP/EBT-friendly Square Market. This way the farmers can set up their stalls every single week and earn directly while helping solve the food insecurity.

To find a space to run the market, we brainstormed and decided that churches, schools and libraries would be the best location to host the Square Market because the people from the community regularly visit there. This will make it very easy for them to access the fresh food. 

The Square Market model that we came up with will run every Sunday after church. Farmers will set up their stalls. When church is over, the individuals will be able to buy food using their SNAP card. This cycle will repeat and as the Square Market gains popularity and more people come, there will be more farmers and a bigger Square Market. 

 After changing our action plan to a Square Market, we realized that there are many efforts and requirements that go into making a Square Market. We will talk about all the stages and roadblocks we faced here.

First, we decided that the farmers in our Square Market must accept SNAP and EBT so that the food is still accessible to people with a lower-income. There are a lot of rules and regulations around this: Farmers need expensive EBT machines to process SNAP and most farmers don’t have one. Costs for these devices range from $600 to $1200. We are in the process of submitting a grant application to the local government to cover this price.

Next, we needed to incentivize farmers to come to our Square Market. When we first talked to farmers, they were reluctant to come because they felt that it wouldn’t be profitable. We realized there needed to be incentives to motivate farmers to sell at our market. We surveyed farmers on what would make them want to sell at our market and we found out that they primarily want tax deductions and a free license to operate. So, we got help from Commissioner Dunlap and presented in Mecklenburg County’s public hearing in presence of all the county commissioners, requesting funding and for the local government to provide these incentives for farmers. This will also be included on our grant proposal to get funding. After talking to a market manager of Charlotte Regional Square Market, we learned a lot about running farmers markets. We needed to hire a steering committee. The steering committee will be represented by farmers, local businesses, key professionals, NC Agriculture Extension, and Consumer representatives to ensure that everything runs smoothly. They will govern the market. 

We identified that a solution needs to be sustainable to create and impact, so we came up with a diligent plan. The market will be hosted weekly on Sunday after church at University Memorial Baptist Church. There are 2 churches hosted here, and approximately 200 people show up regularly. For any market to run successfully for (the amount of buyers) * 0.06 = the amount of farmers. This means that 12 farmers are ideal to start this market. 

We have identified Samantha DeRosa as a possible market manager to run and take charge of the market in the future. The market manager's role is to make sure all the rules and regulations are met, check SNAP machines weekly, etc.

This market will be sustainable because it will run on consumer demand to keep on going. Once the market gets set up and gains popularity more farmers will come. 

Reflection Assessment

The goal of this project is to increase the accessibility of healthy food to people in the food desert area on West Blvd. We felt that our project would make an impact because we were able to understand the situation of the people in the food desert. By doing this we understood the best way to help. Our project is bringing members of the community together.

At the start, we had difficulties determining the problem to focus on. Each member had different ideas. This caused our team to have some minor disagreements which made it longer to identify the issue to work on. However, through research on local issues, speaking with experts, and having first-hand experience of seeing people struggling with not having food, we felt the urgent need to work on food deserts. 

Some of the problems that stumped our project’s progress was that we were unable to find a place to host the market, despite many approaches and methods. Eventually, after a lot of in person persuasion, we were able to convince University Memorial Baptist Church and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library- West Blvd to secure their support and allow us to host our market. 

An overarching challenge throughout the entire project was that this project is also very complex for middle school students, and requires real world experience. The success of our project also depends on government agencies, getting farmers to sell their food, bringing people to the market, and finding a place to host the market. 

During this project, we had many positive outcomes. A main one was that we were able to present to the Mecklenburg County Board and bring them on board with our proposal. They gave us immense support and encouraged us to apply for a grant. This grant will make it possible for us to provide incentives for the farmers and to expand our market in the future. 

Based on our interactions with the local community, they are ready to come to our market. The farmers survey revealed that many farmers were willing to come and sell the food. The Bulb and Loaves and Fishes have agreed to supply the rescued food for us if needed. Most importantly, we have secured the support from the manager of the Charlotte Regional Square Market to provide logistic support throughout our journey. In collaboration with her we are in the process of hiring a market manager who will oversee the day-to-day operations of the market.

We were also able to set up many social media pages to advertise our market, raise awareness and gain followers. In addition, we collected funds from GoFundMe and door to door campaigns in order to raise more funds. This amounted to over 600 dollars. These funds will contribute in providing logistics and advertisement for starting the Square Market. 

All of these achievements are significant steps towards making our square market dream a reality. We brought awareness to their situation through social media, advertising, visiting a farmers market, and recruiting volunteers at State Bowl. Furthermore, we garnered support from the community at the public hearing at the Mecklenburg County Commisioner’s Board meeting. Through establishing connections around the community and on social media, there will be people coming to help and more volunteers will be recruited so that the cart will become self-sustaining. 

We will continue towards fulfilling the purpose of our project and hosting a Square Market every week at University Memorial Baptist Church in West Blvd. Very soon we will be setting up our market and seeing farmers/arabbers rolling in Charlotte with fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy!