Corn on the curb: Variety of produce sold streetside
“Corn! I love corn! Can I have some corn, please?” Jayden Franklin, 4, begged, turning to his older sister who was examining some peaches from the Arvada Veggie Van last week.
Jayden and his sister Tessa Seager, 12, were among a few children clutching crumpled single dollar bills, hungrily eyeing a colorful variety of produce laid out before them.
“It’s surprising how much kids seem to like it. I thought they would be a hard sell,” said Shelley Cook, who was driving the van. “They like that they can chase it around on their bike.”
Think ice cream truck, but for vegetables — that’s the idea behind the Veggie Van.
While stationary, the “van” looks like a stand that you’d see at a farmers market, with carefully arranged produce and a banner across the top reading, “Arvada Veggie Van.” But when it’s on the go, it resembles an elongated golf cart — except with tomatoes, turnips and squash displayed beautifully where the clubs might go.
The van makes its way through residential streets in Arvada four days a week with the incremental “brrrrring” of its bell from 4 to 7 p.m. But the van doesn’t only deliver vegetables, it brings affordable produce to designated food deserts — neighborhoods without access to a fresh-produce grocer within a half-mile and areas that may have higher levels of residents with limited mobility — throughout the community.
The Arvada Veggie Van is a new project from local nonprofit Ride Provide, Inc., which started in 2003 providing shuttle services to Arvada residents. With the imminent completion of the Regional Transportation District Gold Line, Ride Provide ended its shuttle services last fall and spent the following months searching for a way to continue serving the community. Thus, the Veggie Van was born.
“In the basic sense, (we are) providing access and making it easier for people to eat this great food,” said Cook, who is president of the board of directors and general manager for Ride Provide.
The concept first came to mind while the nonprofit searched for a new use for the parcel of land it owns in Olde Town that had been intended for a park-n-Ride space. They considered building a mixed-use development that would include a fresh grocer, but then thought of something better.
“We’re (located) here in this great neighborhood, and we’ve really been able to get acquainted with it,” Cook said. “Rather than just assume (residents) can come to our little store, we thought maybe we can go out into the neighborhoods.”
From there, the pieces started falling into place. Cook stumbled across the Solar Electric Vehicle Company online and found the idea for a mobile farm stand.
“It was just a conceptualized drawing … but it really charmed me,” she said of the online advertisement, which eventually became the Veggie Van.
Then Cook touched base with Jessica Prosser, assistant to the city manager, who told her the city had just been approved for a grant from LiveWell Colorado to do a food assessment of the community and was already discussing alternative modes of distribution for fresh food.
The city awarded Ride Provide $4,000 of the grant money to design the van.
“It was a fortunate circumstance,” Cook said.
With the help of a few volunteers, the Veggie Van motors through the community on Wednesdays through Fridays and Sundays. It serves one neighborhood each day, including the Memorial Park, McIlvoy Park, Creekside Park and Columbine Park neighborhoods — a few of the areas determined to be food deserts by the LiveWell food assessment.
The van rolled out on its first route Aug. 1, and with only a few weeks under its belt, the van already has a dedicated following.
“We listen for your bell every Wednesday!” one customer shouted to Cook last week as she walked away with a large brown paper bag filled with fresh produce in the Memorial Park neighborhood.