Grow-on-the-Go brings healthy food and dignity to low-income Niagara 'food deserts'

Mobile market offers fresh fruit and vegetables at a fraction of supermarket cost

CBC, Paul Forsynth

Read Full Article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/grow-on-the-go-mobile-food-market-diabetes-food-insecurity-9.7303619

Sheila Foster-Lane might not have the key to the fountain of youth, but the fact she looks far younger than her 78 years would suggest she's doing something right.

Foster-Lane is among many folks living at the Kiwanis Parks Apartments, an affordable seniors housing complex in St. Catharines, who makes sure to visit the Grow-on-the-Go mobile food market truck when it pulls up for its weekly trip.

"I eat mainly vegetables and fruit and greens," said Foster-Lane in late July, while hoisting a catch of sweet potatoes and plantains. "I spend a lot of money on produce. You pay the farmer now or you pay the doctor later."

It's common to see a sizable crowd of older folks from the low-rise apartment complex on Geneva Street waiting to see the sleek, electric truck pull in, laden with fruit and vegetables ranging from mangos and bananas to carrots and yams.

It's all fresh, and it's all much cheaper than what you'd pay in a supermarket.

The new, innovative mobile market is an extension of the Grow Community Food Literacy Centre that opened in one of the lowest-income areas of Niagara, the Elgin district of downtown Niagara Falls, in 2020.

Subsidized market draws large crowds

Grow also runs a Saturday market in a former Scouts building on Fourth Avenue offering a large array of subsidized, healthy food choices, with clients having to show they live below the low-income cutoff.

The registered charity regularly gets 400 to 500 people at its fixed market, and about the same number of people at the weekly runs with the mobile market, which makes visits to several locations in Niagara where food insecurity is prevalent, said founder Pam Farrell.

She came up with the concept of Grow while studying food literacy and food security at the University of Calgary and realized the pressing need for people living in what she calls "food deserts" to have access to healthy, affordable food choices. 

She chose the Elgin area because poverty is so prevalent, there are few supermarkets nearby, and a large proportion of people pay more than 30 per cent of their income on housing. More than 75 per cent of people accessing the market suffer from diabetes and other chronic health conditions associated with poor nutrition, she said.

The Mayo Clinic says diabetes can lead to severe complications such as amputations, kidney failure and heart and blood vessel damage.

“They don’t have access to an affordable grocery store but they have access to a corner convenience store or the dollar store, so the foods that you find there are pre-packaged foods, high in salt, high in fat," said Farrell, who volunteers as the organization's co-executive director.

Even if they had cars to get to supermarkets, Farrell said the high cost of fresh, healthy fruit and vegetables is simply out of reach for so many people with low incomes.

"You can't make those choices when you don't have the money," she said. "It's easier to buy a bag of chips than it is to buy a pint of blueberries."

Lindsay Krahn, community development manager for Grow, said inflationary pressures on food prices since it launched six years ago means the number of people experiencing food insecurity continues to rise. Having access to less expensive, healthy food is key for them, she said.

"For low-income families, it can make a really big difference," Krahn said.

Food insecurity linked with poorer health

Niagara’s regional government says people experiencing food insecurity eat less fruit and vegetables, may miss meals and are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, depression, anxiety disorder, mood disorders and suicidal thoughts.

Kids living with food insecurity at an early age are at elevated risk of asthma and mental health problems that persist into their teens and adulthood, the Region says.

But the Canadian Income Survey of 2022 found one in five Niagara households are food insecure, and the Region said nearly a fifth of Niagara kids under age 17 live in food insecure households.

At the Kiwanis apartments stop, nearly a kilogram of strawberries were selling for just $2, and mangoes were just 50 cents. Monique Beaulne was thrilled to snap up a bag of broccoli crowns weighing almost a kilogram for $2.

"That would be maybe $5 or $6 in the supermarket," she said. "I think it's awesome. We [seniors] don't get a big paycheque, so this helps... a lot."

Farrell said after other areas of Niagara expressed a desire for the Grow model to be established in low-income areas there, she decided to create the mobile market because more bricks-and-mortar locations were simply "not feasible."

Every Thursday and Friday, the Grow-on-the-Go mobile market visits eight areas of St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Port Colborne. Farrell said she worked closely with Niagara Region's public health department to choose locations with low incomes, lack of access to healthy food choices and high population densities to have the most impact.

She said studies have shown only about a quarter of people living with food insecurity use food banks, despite food banks across Niagara reporting record numbers of people accessing them. 

"Going to the food bank is for many people the lowest of the low," she said. "It’s a very undignified piece of being poor to have to go to a food bank.”

Farrell said a key aspect of the Grow model is the dignity it brings for clients, who – unlike at a food bank – pay for the food, albeit at a highly-subsidized rate.

"You can feel and smell the fruit and vegetables that you want to buy," she said. "It’s a very dignified and welcoming atmosphere."