RIPHI’s Food on the Move is a mobile produce market that aims to reduce disparities in food access for all Rhode Islanders. Food on the Move reduces barriers of cost and geographic access to healthy, culturally relevant fruits and vegetables by bringing produce to diverse communities that face inequity in health outcomes. In addition, Food on the Move offers a 50% discount to customers that use their SNAP/EBT card for purchases, helping to make the produce offerings more affordable.

Rachel’s examination of consumer preferences to adapt our market to colder weather determined that our consumers prefer to select their own produce but will buy a pre-designed produce box if necessary. We also determined that we need to increase the visual communication onsite to best communicate changing options to our population, and that our population can reliably afford a weekly produce box of no more than $10 (unsubsidized).

Rachel’s results in examining consumer preferences will likely make a significant contribution to FOTM’s success through the fall and winter. Without having done this work, we likely would have designed our strategy differently, missing the opportunity to serve our population as fully as possible. The sustainability of FOTM is critical to the greater research goals, as the rest of the study cannot be conducted if FOTM ceases to exist or drastically drops in participation.