The Lexington Mobile Market is a 60-foot trailer that houses a single-aisle grocery, stocked with fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products along with household items like cleaning products and toilet paper.
The Mobile Market visits 24 active sites each month and John Rupp, Senior Nutrition Programs Manager with God's Pantry Food Bank says in the first year more than 72-hundred transactions were made, amounting to nearly $100-thousand dollars in sales.
The Mobile Market is a partnership between the Lexington Fayette County Urban County Government, Kroger, and God's Pantry Food Bank. Mike Halligan, CEO of God's Pantry says the market shows the power of public, private partnerships to help individuals who are food insecure.
"This particular program is about providing resources in food deserts, often in locations where folks are limited in their ability for transportation so that they have easy, convenient access to food." Halligan said.
Roughly a third of the customers that use the Lexington Mobile Market are on SNAP benefits. Halligan said the market allows an easy convenient way for people who use those benefits to "help them thrive" by meeting them where they live.
