Mobile market takes aim at rising food insecurity in Fort Erie

https://forterieradio.ca/mobile-market-takes-aim-at-rising-food-insecurity-in-fort-erie/

Andrew Hawlitzky

July 15, 2026 at 3:02 AM

Nearly 28 per cent of Niagara households experienced food insecurity in 2023 and 2024, according to Public Health Ontario, a 56 per cent jump from two years earlier, and a Niagara Falls charity says the strain shows up every Friday at its electric market truck in Fort Erie.

GROW Community Food Literacy Centre parks its GROW-on-the-GO Mobile Market at the Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre, 796 Buffalo Road, from 11 to 11:45 a.m., then at the Crystal Beach Co-op, 1 Esme Lane, from 12:15 to 1 p.m.

The registered charity says the truck sells fresh produce, bread, pantry staples, diapers and dish soap at lower prices than the grocery store, and anyone can shop.

“Everyone sees it at the grocery store, food is so expensive, so there’s a huge need for food programs,” community development manager Lindsay Krahn told Fort Erie Radio.

Krahn estimates nearly one in three Niagara households is food insecure. Her figure tracks with the Public Health Ontario data, and a 2025 Brock University hunger report found the numbers show no sign of falling.

Krahn said price is only part of the problem, because some residents cannot get to a grocery store at all.

“For a lot of people, sometimes there’s barriers, whether that’s transportation or things like that, to accessing grocery stores,” said Krahn. “By coming out right to community spaces, or to apartment buildings, we’re meeting people where they already are with that fresh food.”

Krahn said the paid model gives shoppers control over what goes home in the bag, as opposed to a preselected food box from a food bank.

“People have the dignity of a grocery store or a farmers market sort of idea, just at really low prices,” said Krahn.

Krahn said GROW launched the truck about a year and a half ago and added the Fort Erie and Crystal Beach stops in March 2025. More than 1,000 people now buy food through its eight weekly stops across the region, she said, including two in Port Colborne. The charity asks shoppers to bring their own bags.

The truck returns to Buffalo Road on Friday at 11 a.m.