Veggie Van

Phil: I was just up in at Cornell University up in Ithaca. I wasn't able to track down the Veggie Van that they started probably some five years ago. But Sally, tell us about what the Veggie Van does, what it is, and how it's helping people.

Sally: I love the veggie van. You know, I love so many ideas that come out of Cornell when it comes to food, but the Veggie Van was something that they started in 2015. They received a grant to create this mobile Farmer's Market, basically that they took out into areas where people, this is in the Niagara area where people were unable to get easy access to food. Now this isn't just, this isn't just food desert situations or low income situations. We're also talking about seniors who can't get out to stores. We're talking about, they would go to women's shelters. So there's a lot of different ways that they've gotten this food out here. But the other really exciting part, part about this fill is that with that they included a training program for new farmers. So people who wanted to become farmers could sign up for this program and learn everything from seed to building your own business and be a part of this Veggie Van as they learn to farm.

Phil: And we've seen these kinds of vans or trucks throughout the country, certainly in Detroit. We've seen it in Florida now, you know, up in the Niagara County. But it just makes so much sense that as you know, as people are not either driving or not able to get out let's bring the food to them. And, you know, they had interviewed a couple people for this article and, you know, it's, it's a life thread for them, and the people are eating healthier and it's not costing them more. So we, we need to have more government programs subsidizing things like the Cornell Veggie Van.