TEMPLE, Texas — The City of Temple wants to bring a grocery store right to your front door. East Temple is considering a mobile market option for homeowners because of the lack of grocery stores in the area.
City Manager for the City of Temple, Brynn Myers, says the idea came about after the city commissioned a market study which found East Temple is not at the point where it can attract a private grocery store.
"This could be a very helpful thing to help bridge the gap from where we are now with the largely food desert in his area of our community to where we can ultimately get a brick and mortar strip store and in the between time using this mobile market concept to meet the immediate need," Myers said.
The factors included things like income, housing and development. While Myers was researching methods to help break this barrier, she found a quite creative idea. That was the idea of a mobile grocery store market.
The Zero Hunger Mobile Market with the Dare to Care Food Bank is based in Louisville, Kentucky and partners with Kroger to provide groceries for those who cannot make the trip to the store.
"I would love to see a fleet of these things, you know, and go across the US," Grant Leuenberger, Mobile Market Driver for the Dare to Care Food Bank, said.
Other cities including Nashville, Minneapolis and Tulsa use similar mobile grocery store options for residents.
"As the need for hunger grows, more of these will start to pop up," Leuenberger said.
The 40-foot trailer provides all the necessities you might need, from fresh meats, produce, shelf stable products and dairy.
"Basically all the staples you would need to get through, you know a week two weeks," Leuenberger said. "It is a mobile grocery store. Instead of you going into the store, we bring the store to you."
The mobile market stops at customers' doorsteps and makes two to three stops in just one day.
"They can use credit cards, they can use governmental assistance programs like EBT cards or checks," Myers said.
Even though the mobile market could be temporary for the City of Temple, the aim to tackle hunger is more crucial than ever.
"We see the people that it affects immediately," Leuenberger said. "This has been even more of an eye opening experience for me because you actually see, and you know the people, when they tell you the stories about you know, well we missed you last week as we're down for any kind of maintenance, you really see how it affects the people that we help."
Myers says they are still in the early stages, but the next big step is reaching out to local grocery stores to see if they would be willing to be a partner in this project.
Watch Leuenberger's full interview below.