top of page

 Fresh Moves Interview

“Actually right now we get our food from the food market – actually the International Produce Market, which is on the Southwest side of Chicago.  We pick that up from them right now.  But shortly we are going to be getting from the local farmers here in Chicago.  We’re going to get a lot of home-grown product, we’ll be getting a lot of organic product.  Sometimes we just have the organic smoothies on the bus, which we keep it in our cooler right there.  So ya know, we’re just try to – we’re just mobile produce – we’re a mobile store.  We try to bring the produce to the people”

“We want to get a sense – how many people stop by?” -Mark

“Well today was a pretty decent day.  We made quite a few – we had quite a few sales today, ya know, sales vary from day to day.  You know, depending - on some communities, depending on the time of the month. You know, when they get their money, you know.“ - Riley

“Do you time your visits based on that?” – Mark

“We commonly do, we do, when it’s best for them.  So the first of the month is probably our heaviest time. This if Rory, I’m Riley.  The first of the month is usually the busiest time of the month for us because a lot of people get their checks or their food stamps the first of the month.  So that’s the time that we go to a lot of the senior citizen buildings, a lot of the communities like this” - Riley

“How do you choose which locations to go to?” – JAI

“Well we have a coordinator who contacts the  - actually the contact people in these communities – they contact us!  They say ‘Hey can you’ – they heard about the program like you guys, and they say ‘Hey can you guys come over to – can you come to our building?  And Imma  send out fliers and let everyone know, you know, you guys are coming?’  And people are like, ‘Oh yeah, I want fresh fruits and vegetables.  You know, I don’t have to go to the store, and pay the high prices at some of the stores, so that’s how – word of mouth from each community organization.” – Riley

“So one of the things we’re getting into data the city provides and things like where are the stores, where are the farmer’s markets.  So what would be useful?  What can we calculate that would be useful for you?  What do you want to know?” – Mark

“We want to know where the people – where the need is.  Where are we needed? You know?  Where can we be – where can we go to?  That people are going to need us.  That’s what we want because people – ya know fruits and vegetables is needed by everyone.  You know – to get fresh ones at a reasonable price, and we can bring it to you, and you’re ready to buy – that’s what we want to know!  You know, we want to know, we want to bring this to you.” – Riley

“We’re also thinking about an educational component of this being that, ‘Do people understand the importance of getting fresh produce and fresh foods?” - JAI

“Its good you say that.  Actually we just had a class, we are actually taking classes so that we can be able to tell the people a little bit more about … so that we can tell the people a little bit more about what each fruit and vegetable does for the body.  You know, like they were just telling us about apples have so many nutrients – once you start taking the peel off, it takes away what it’s actually designed to do for you.  So you know, so we’re getting educated through people coming in educating us so that we can educate the people” – Riley

“Who is that, that comes in?” – Mark

“They have different people that come it.  I forget – last week or two weeks ago we had a lady come in and she did some training with us.  I forgot the organization that she works with, but she’s supposed to come back and give us some more training.  But we’re always looking for somebody to give us some information.  Ya know, the more information we can give people, the better that is.” – Riley

“I apologize, we just found out about you and ran out here.  It seems like you have one or two stops a day?” - Mark

“Yeah, we have particularly three, maybe two to four stops per day just depending on how she sets stuff up. Sometimes we do an event and stay at that event for four to five hours depending on what is going on and that is when we have one stop. Usually we have two to four stops.” – Riley

“Do you have plans of getting another bus?” – Mark

“Yeah, we do. We have a third bus and we are working on it. Another bus is already ready so we are gonna have two buses in circulation.” – Riley

“Does the city help you with this at all?” – Mark

“Yeah, you can say that they help us as far as purchasing the bus.  You know, they give it to us for a dollar! We brought a proposal and told them what we wanted to do for the city and they kinda helped us, it was like a donation type of thing. We also try to raise money to keep the buses running and get all the buses up and running, and fixed up…now we have only one bus going, but we want to have all of our three buses running” – Riley

Interview with Riley from Fresh Moves
06/01/2013 3pm

“We got our grapes, we got red and green seedless grapes, pineapples mangos…nectarines” - Riley

“So why don’t you tell us about the program itself and the success of this bus in particular” – JAI

“Okay, so what we do is we go to the food desert areas…communities that don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and what we try to do is go to these communities so we can provide fresh fruits and vegetables to promote healthier eating and a better way of living.  It’s a two fold purpose”

“Where do you get your food from?” –JAI

bottom of page