Canadian charity group launches electric mobile food pantry

A Canadian charitable organization is launching an electric mobile market on Nov. 28 in Niagara Falls.

The GROW Community Food Literacy Centre is behind the innovation, called the GROW-in-the-GO Electric Mobile Market Program, which aims to address food insecurity. The initiative brings fresh, affordable produce via a truck to communities that have difficulty accessing healthy food.

The GROW Community Food Literacy Centre, which was established in Niagara Falls in 2019, features a family teaching kitchen and a low-cost grocery store offering subsidized prices to increase both food affordability and accessibility to those in need.

“This mobile market is a game-changer for our community,” said Rose Iannacchino, co-executive director of GROW. 

Addressing food insecurity via mobile food pantries is a solution that has been gaining traction.

Last year, Pennsylvania-based The Giant Co. announced a partnership with health care organization Geisinger and Central Susquehanna Opportunities to pilot a mobile food pantry that serves food-insecure people in the Central Susquehanna Valley.

The regional supermarket committed almost $600,000 to fund the mobile pantry.

Tech startup Goodr is collaborating with Amazon and several other corporate partners to deploy a mobile grocery store in Petersburg, Va. The wheelchair-accessible, 26-foot truck is equipped with refrigerators, freezers, and shelving and is stocked with items like produce, milk, eggs, and other shelf-stable products.

A little over 13% of U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point during 2023—almost a full percentage point higher than in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Just over 5% of households had very low food security.

More than 47 million people lived in food-insecure households last year.