BUFFALO, N.Y. — FeedMore WNY's Farm Market has been around for about a year now working to fight food insecurity in our community.
2 On Your Side stopped by one of its newest locations on Monday afternoon to see how it is already making an impact.
"It looks just like a food truck, but it's a farmers market when it opens up," explained Teresa Gerchman, Principal of Westminster Community Charter School.
So far, there are three Farm Market trucks bringing fresh produce directly to neighborhoods that need more access to healthy food in Western New York.
"They pull in so you can walk on the sidewalk so there's no cars going by you or anything like that," said Teresa Gerchman.
FeedMore WNY is partnering with Buffalo Promise Neighborhood for the Farm Market. One of the newest stops is Westminster Community Charter School in Buffalo. The school hosts the truck every Wednesday morning for an hour from 9 until 10.
"The kids were like, oh yeah, remember the green peppers, I thought they'd be spicy, but they weren't spicy, so I told my mom if she put green peppers in my food I would eat it, but not the jalapeno peppers, so those conversations will automatically take themselves home and they'll have those conversations. Kids are not going to go home and say I learned how to add two plus three today, but they will definitely go home and say we went outside to the Farm Truck and we got to learn where they came from," said Teresa Gerchman.
And the Farm Market is not limited to students. Anyone can shop there.
"When you come there, you're going to get a lot of the things that you're used to seeing. Apples, grapes, that kind of stuff. But then there's also, you know, usually things that are going to be a surprise. Things you may not be used to and our Farm Market truck travels with a lot of information about those, so if there's produce or vegetables on there that you're not familiar with, you can request information about it," said Collin Bishop, Chief Communication Officer at FeedMore WNY.
They try to have six to twelve different kinds of produce at each Farm Market stop and you can pay with cash, credit, SNAP, and Double Up Food Bucks.