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Access to fresh produce such as that sold on this mobile farmers' market is limited in some urban areas. See the video here.
The healthy approach to meals on wheels
By Philippa Thomas
9 February 2010
BBC News, Richmond, Virginia
America's First Lady, Michelle Obama, has launched a campaign to improve the way families eat, encouraging Americans to face the fact that one in three children is overweight or obese.
As part of her initiative, she stressed the need to make healthy food more accessible. I met one couple who are trying to do just that, by running a mobile farmers' market in Virginia.
It is a sight that makes people stop and stare.
As Mark Lilly's big white bus heads along rundown city streets, the slogans painted on its side are as colourful as its owner: "Feeding the community one stop at a time. Support local farmers. Get local produce. Get on the bus, Gus!"
Virginia businessman Mark Lilly bought his 23-year-old bus on the internet. The day I joined him for the ride, he and his wife Suzi began at home, packing the aisles with organic produce they had sourced from local farms.
Baskets of colourful apples and squashes sat next to fistfuls of greens: kale, spinach, cabbage. And there was home-made apple pie.
The specialised farmers' market is becoming a colourful staple of American city life.
Mrs Obama presided over the opening of Washington's latest market in September, just a stone's throw from the White House.
What makes this venture different is Mr Lilly's determination to focus on "food deserts", those blighted urban neighbourhoods where fast food is the rule, and fresh produce very much the exception.
Urban blight
Much of the city of Richmond, Virginia, is historic and impressive. But as we drive into the district of Church Hills, the couple talk about the damage done by crack use.
We pass liquor stores and check-cashing outlets and row after row of boarded up windows.
We stop in the empty parking lot of an abandoned supermarket, over the road from a huddle of drunks, and wait for customers to come.
Mark Lilly is a man on a mission.
Cowboy hat jammed firmly on his head, he bursts with enthusiasm as he woos folks off the street: "This is spaghetti squash. You can make it go for a family of six. They're the freshest eggs, got them this morning. Here, take these packets of seeds, get the kids to start a garden."
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