As a husband and wife team, our passion for food began in Italy, where we witnessed the beauty of slow food culture. Playing a central role in the lives of Italians, food is something to be cherished and enjoyed, not rushed. Food brings people together and creates strong communities and in Italy, we noticed that they cared about where their food came from. It had a profound impact on us. This idea of real food being a catalyst for building healthier, stronger communities is what motivated us to become involved in promoting local food in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
Just in time for that first haul of fresh Minnesota produce, our company, Honeybee Mobile Market, plans to launch the city’s first mobile farmer’s market in May, making weekly stops throughout the Twin Cities during the growing season.
We’ve now spent more than four years working with Minnesota farms, hoping to connect farmers to new communities and vice versa by making local, high-quality foods more accessible to everyone.While the Twin Cities has a thriving food community, there are still too many that don’t have access to these nutritious foods. Our goal is close this access gap by bringing the market directly to people, helping them make healthier choices in a convenient way.
Just like a farmer’s market or food co-op, our farmer’s market on wheels will offer local, seasonal foods—fruits and vegetables, meats, fresh bread, flowers, cheese, milk, eggs, and other artisan groceries. By using retrofitted, customized trailers, our customers can enter the trailer through the back, select their groceries as if they are perusing a grocery store aisle, and exit out of the front side door, where they’ll be able to pay for their purchase using cash or credit card.
Honeybee Mobile Market will make scheduled stops in neighborhoods, businesses, events, schools, and other convenient locations across the metro area—making it super easy to shop for wholesome ingredients.
We are currently collecting requests for weekly stops, aiming to bring healthy, local foods to where people work, live, play, and more. We’ve already received interest from neighborhood associations, office buildings, businesses, schools and other places interested in having access to these foods.
In addition to creating the Twin Cities’ first farmers market on wheels, Honeybee Mobile Market will also offer up an online grocery store featuring local and artisan foods available for home and business delivery.
With the help of a Kickstarter campaign funded in part by people committed to real, good food, Honeybee Mobile Market will use the online crowd-sourcing tool as a means to inspire the farming community to connect new people to the local food movement.
We are already partnering with more than 25 local food producers and purveyors, including Harmony Valley Farm, Natura Farms, Featherstone Farm, Ridgeroll Farms, Just Local Produce, and Cedar Summit Farm.
We want to help promote the hard work of farmers by sharing their stories with others, and by bringing their delicious fruits and vegetables to families across the Twin Cities. Farmers are some of the hardest-working people, and their success is vital to our health, safety, and future. Support a project that could encourage healthier eating in areas that don’t necessarily have immediate access to fresh produce.
This project was featured in GOOD’s Saturday series Push for Good—our guide to crowdfunding creative progress.
This month, we’re challenging the GOOD community to host a dinner party and cook a meal that contains fewer ingredients than the number of people on the guest list. Throughout March, we’ll share ideas and resources for being more conscious about our food and food systems. Join the conversation at good.is/food and on Twitter at #chewonit.
