After more than six months of planning, preparation and awareness-raising, this afternoon the Delridge Produce Cooperative launches its biggest project yet: The “Mobile Market.” DPC’s leader, Galena White, explains both the co-op and the Mobile Market, as well as how you can get involved:

Delridge Produce Cooperative is a group of residents in the Delridge Neighborhood who wish to establish a cooperatively-run, non-profit produce stand on Delridge Way SW to furnish the residents with healthy food in what is now a healthy-food desert. To make the community more aware of the issues, we have engaged the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association as our fiscal agents and obtained a grant from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods to host a demonstration project this summer.

At our ‘Mobile Market’ stalls, we’ll be handing out fruits and vegetables to Delridge residents for FREE this weekend, and next weekend we’ll also have free tote bags and tons of information (in 13 different locally-spoken languages) about other free and low-cost local programs to promote health and community:

August 14th, 2009 – September 7th, 2009
All events are on Delridge Way SW
Fridays: 9050 (map), Watts Electric, 3:30 pm-7:30 pm
Saturdays: 6535 (map), Care-A-Lot Learning Center, 11:00 am-3:00 pm
Sundays: Delridge P-Patch (next to Cottage Grove Park on Brandon; map), 11:00 am-3:00 pm
Mondays: 4408 (map), Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 3:30 pm-7:30 pm

We hope that this project will increase community awareness of food sustainability and security, and that there will be a resulting growth of support for organizations like Delridge Produce Cooperative. Neighbors will be able to take part in a survey about what they want in a neighborhood produce stand, and will be able to sign up to be among the first members of the co-op. Once the ‘Mobile Market’ project is finished, we at DPC will begin the work of designing a business model, deciding whether we will be a non-profit, and finding ways to actually fund our startup. EVERYONE is a part of Delridge Produce Cooperative, and we hope that many will join us in creating a new place for healthy food on Delridge.

We still have plenty of need for donations or volunteers for the ‘Mobile Market’, so (here’s) our email address (delridgeproducecoop@gmail.com) or phone number [(206) 271-1880] for those who want to get involved! Volunteer slots are available in three- or six-hour shifts starting and finishing one hour before and after the regularly scheduled hours of operation. If anyone has got any extra garden produce, they can drop it off at the ‘Mobile Market’, and we’ll give it away for free!