Have produce, will travel

Once again, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and Together Baton Rouge are holding a mobile pantry in Scotlandville that provides fresh produce to the community this Saturday, February 23, and again on March 16, weather permitting. The concept of the mobile food pantry addresses the dearth of fresh fruits and vegetables in Scotlandville, an area comprised of about 18,000 residents in the northwest corner of the city that has experienced serious decline and disinvestment since the sixties and seventies. I’ve spent a lot of time here, both in my past life as a nonprofit executive and during an eight-month stint for Business Report a few years back profiling a young single mother for a cover story on the working poor. She had dropped out of high school to raise a daughter, worked full time at Church’s Chicken for pennies more than minimum wage and fed her family, which also included her disabled mother, with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program–food stamps. It wasn’t easy for them to find fresh produce or the healthy foods that affluent communities have become so accustomed to. Grocery shopping was a constant chore because they didn’t have a car. Scotlandville, says Slow Food Baton Rouge Chapter founder and LSU Professor of Horticulture Carl Motsenbocker, is the largest example in our area of a food desert, a place that lacks easy access to fresh and nutritious foods. The Mobile Pantry brings fresh produce and other items to the community; an emergency salve for a community that faces tough hurdles in attracting a full-fledged grocery store including a declining population and a high crime rate.

The free mobile pantry takes place at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 1620 77th Avenue from 9 am until supplies last. Organizers suggest customers bring a chair and a food carrier.