A Brief Rundown:
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Full funding will enable us to buy some of the most essential components needed to run our bus on waste veggie oil and help sell fresh, local, organically grown produce at affordable prices to areas that do not have access to fresh produce.
- Every dollar helps, check out the perks for donating, and spread the word!
Moving Market Mission
The Moving Market’s mission: to make healthy, sustainably grown, organic foods more affordable and accessible to communities -- especially low-income residents, senior citizens, and "food desert areas" (areas with low access to healthy foods) -- by selling directly to the people, year-round at wholesale cost. Nutrition and the benefits of buying fresh, locally grown produce will be an educational emphasis of these interactions.
Food is an integral part of our lives and the Moving Market would promote a connection to organic agro-forestry/farming methods. We are members of the World Wide Organization of Organic Farmers (WWOOF), with a variety of experience with farmer’s markets, and are currently helping out at Six Circles farm in upstate New York. Six Circles Farm is a certified naturally-grown farm that uses organic farming practices and is well-known in the area for its unique garlic scape pesto and strong garlic powder (both perks for donating!). Many of the farms we have worked on have an abundance of good, tastey, totally edible produce left over from market. Much of the left over food is composted, which is great for the soil, but we see an opportunity where we can take that good food to people who need it.
The Moving Market is a cohesive plan that would encourage sustainability, reduction and prevention of waste, and community empowerment. We have purchased a bus that would allow us to travel and share produce that we have helped grow. With your help, the Moving Market Bus can be repaired and converted to run on waste vegetable oil (wvo)—which would therefore allow us to reduce fossil fuel consumption, utilize otherwise-wasted vegetable oil, and deliver nutritious sustainably-grown food to communities.
Every dollar contributed goes toward making organic products and helping to keep the vegetable bus up and running properly.
Meet the bus drivers:
Raven: Certified in Permaculture Design, graduated from Rudolf Steiner, entrepreneur (see Raven’s Nest on Etsy.com), member of Worldwide Organization of Organic Farmers, experienced farmhand, wild crafter, experienced in acro-yoga, musician, artist, motivated individual.
Emily: B.A. in Environmental Policy from University at Buffalo, experienced grassroots campaigner for the environmental group Clean Water Action, member of Worldwide Organization of Organic Farmers, experienced organic farmhand, road warrior, artist, aspiring herbalist, motivated individual.
We both are currently volunteering at Six Circles Farm in Lodi, New York, but will head south to help with permaculture projects in Florida.
What We Need & What You Get
Every dollar contributed aids in providing a cleaner and environmentally-conscious mode of transportation for organic farmers, permaculturalists, and environmentalists in general. These community advocates will be able to get to and from their points of destination in an environmentally-efficient way. Whether it’s bringing a fellow WWOOFer to their next organic farm, or transporting volunteers to help out at a green project, the Moving Market bus will actualize the sustainable principles which many of us seek to act upon yet fail to practically enact due to the lack of opportunities or capabilities.
Full funding will enable us to buy some of the most essential components needed to run a bus on veggie oil. The bus also has the capability to support a solar panel system. The solar panel implementation would provide clean energy which would power appliances. The appliances would store food grown by organic farmers and would eventually be the storing system for our own food creations which we would sell from the bus – the new, organic, revolutionized “Skippy (or whatever your local ice cream truck was called).”
A Breakdown of Costs: Injection pump $1500, walbro pump and Vegetable Conversion Kit's veg filter $290, veg and coolant lines $300, new 50 gallon tank $400, tank heater $230 hot fox , wiring $50, $300 mechanic labor
Once the bus is repaired and converted the funds will go towards buying a solar panel system (roughly $500) and cooler to store vegetables in the bus. Other funding will go to license, permit costs, promotions, and sustainability projects/workshops.
The Impact
-Encourages health, community, sustainability
-Increases the availability of sustainably-grown food to underserved communities
-Creates a cleaner mode of transportation that will inspire and mobilize others
This is not an impossible feat. In fact, our neighbors in Albany have successfully launched a similar project. Check it out and see how possible it really is! http://www.cdcg.org/VeggieMobile.html
Other Ways You Can Help
Some people just can’t contribute, but that doesn’t mean they can’t help:
- Ask folks to get the word out and make some noise about our campaign.
- Remind them to use the Indiegogo share tools!
