A new twist on food delivery

Getting fresh food to the masses

By Culinate staff

October 7, 2010

Since the demise of Gourmet a year ago, food-politics reporter Barry Estabrook has continued his Politics of the Plate department online. His latest? A look at an inventive way to get fresh food to so-called “food deserts” — via postal truck. The farmers at Diggers' Mirth in Vermont use an old USPS vehicle to bring fresh produce directly to customers:

One evening a week, members of the cooperative drive the aging vehicle around Burlington’s Old North End and peddle organic produce. Vermont may be a hotbed of all things local/sustainable/organic, but the trend bypassed the Old North End, where the median family income in 2000 was only $27,500, and fully one-third of the residents lived in poverty. Like hardscrabble neighborhoods everywhere in the United States, the area has no supermarkets, leaving residents the choice between traveling great distances on less-than-convenient public transportation or paying high prices for shabby-looking produce at local convenience stores — if they can find it.