A mobile market is a type of retail operation that brings fresh food and groceries directly to communities, typically using a vehicle such as a truck, trailer or a Van.
Mobile markets are designed to address food access issues in underserved areas, such as food deserts where residents have limited access to affordable, fresh, and nutritious food options.
In the North Shore region, there are over 53 mobile market sites, with 89% of them operating as no-cost food aid markets, providing free staples to families in need. However, there's a significant opportunity to develop new economic models that support local producers while meeting community needs.
Since New Entry mission is to launch viable local farm businesses. Through this project, we'll work with beginning and historically underserved farmers to access direct-sale mobile market opportunities, helping them achieve economic success and expand their operations. We'll also establish one of the first direct-sale mobile markets in the region as a model for other farmers.
As a registered SNAP and HIP vendor, New Entry Food Hub will manage the mobile market, connecting beginning and small-scale producers to new market channels and revenue opportunities. This initiative will run for 30 weeks a year (mid-April through mid-November), supporting beginning and small-scale farmers by providing additional markets for their produce.
Mobile Market Location Stops
- Glenn Urquhart School, 74 Hart St, Beverly, MA 01915. Tuesdays from 2:30-5:30 in front of their greenhouse until June 4th!
- Lynn and Revere, MA locations: stay tuned for our start dates.
Sign up for the Mobile Market Newsletter Here!
The North Shore Mobile Market Coalition (NSMMC)
For this project, we will launch a new regional collaboration of stakeholders operating mobile markets in the North Shore region of Massachusetts to increase the distribution, promotion, and direct sales of local fruits and vegetables and value-added products.
Our goals are to leverage the purchasing power of dozens of mobile market operators to procure and promote locally grown produce, to build new market channels for small, beginning, and historically underserved producers, and increase access to fresh, locally grown produce for consumers facing food insecurity.
The partners, organizations, and farms committed to participating in the NSMMC include the following:
- Nourishing the North Shore (Newbury, MA)
- Age Span (Lawrence, MA)
- The Open Door (Gloucester, MA)
- Beverly Bootstraps (Beverly, MA)
- The Salem Pantry (Salem, MA)
- Building Audacity (Lynn, MA)
- The Food Project (Lynn, MA)
- Newhall Field Community Farm (Peabody, MA);
- Root North Shore (Salem, MA)
- Essex North Shore Agricultural and Technical High School (Danvers, MA)
- New Entry’s Food Hub
This much needed regional coalition will build off the 2020 Conway School’s Upper North Shore Food Study that recommended expanding mobile markets in this region to increase food access in underserved areas. Additional community food assessments in the region have been conducted by the City of Salem’s Food Policy Council (2019) and the Peabody Community Food Council (2021); both prioritize increasing food access through new direct market linkages between local producers and consumers. The NSMMC will carefully consider how mobile produce markets not currently sourcing local products can increase local purchasing while avoiding competition to established farmers markets. Locations chosen for any new mobile markets will be selected in neighborhoods or at community sites in the region not served by farmers markets or grocery stores and represent low-income/low-access areas.