In 2O19, Fresh Truck is expanding on a powerful new program to help us become more impactful, innovative, and sustainable. We call it FreshConnect. FreshConnect makes it possible for healthcare providers and other organizations invested in the health of communities to prescribe food as medicine. FreshConnect activates our Mobile Markets as food pharmacies, and we are generating data-driven insight into nutrition and health that can guide patient care. By creating a system for healthy food prescriptions, Fresh Truck is working to reduce the cost of fresh food for patients, make a direct connection between food and health, and improve the health of the Boston community.
To take FreshConnect to the next level, we’re bringing on Michael Lantow as our FreshConnect Program Director. Michael brings with him experience in food programming and healthcare innovation. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with healthcare providers to offer patients with healthy, affordable food. As someone who has a chronic disease, I intimately know the frustrations of searching for foods that make my body feel great while functioning to its full potential. I am committed to easing this experience for others.”
Foundations, corporate sponsors, donors, and healthcare institutions contribute to the FreshConnect Fund to cover the cost of food for their community of people. Our implementation partners enroll households who receive a smart FreshConnect card based on their financial and health needs. Shoppers use these cards on a weekly basis to buy healthy food from any of our mobile market sites. Our point-of-sale system tracks shopper data which stakeholders use to measure key health indicators among their community of FreshConnect shoppers.
Interested in getting involved in FreshConnect? Contact Michael Lantow at [email protected] or (857) 256-0560.
We are excited to have you join us as our seventh(!) full-time employee. What made you want to get involved with Fresh Truck?
I come from an academic background, so research studies are the way I became familiar with the barriers people face to eating healthy and accessing fresh food. As I was working with this information, I wished that I could provide resources and programs for them to tackle these challenges. I started volunteering with Fresh Truck a few months ago and loved what I learned about the shoppers, their cultures, and what they enjoy cooking and eating. The shopping experience at Fresh Truck is unique, and I was excited to help people connect with this valuable resource.
A big part of your role will be designing programs that celebrate food and food culture. What’s a significant memory you have of food?
Eating delicious sweet mangoes in Taiwan with my family. Growing up, my parents and grandparents loved feeding us, so mangoes and other fruits would magically appear in front of us.
What are you excited to bring to the Program Manager position?
I am excited to figure out new ways for the markets better serve our shoppers and provide a great shopping experience. I think it’s amazing that Fresh Truck has generated so much demand across the city, and I want to make sure the shopping experience is as enjoyable as possible for as many people as possible. A big part of my role will be creating strong partnerships with community organizations, bridging cultural gaps, and constantly tweaking our programs to make them better.
We’re excited to welcome you as our newest Market Manager on the team. What initially drew you to the Fresh Truck?
For the last 10 years, I have been very interested in the restructuring of our food system in a way creates equitable access to whole, healthy food across the board. I believe that organizations like Fresh Truck have an important role to play in this restructuring by thinking out of the box and proving that alternative models are viable.
As community health advocates, Fresh Truck is interested in not only celebrating food culture but also cultivating stories surrounding food. Tell us about one of your fondest food memories?
Every New Year’s Eve I get together with my family to ring in the new year and share a bounty of handmade tamales with my aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends. We get together the day before to prepare the hundreds of tamales and sit with my aunts at a table assembling each down a production line. My Tia always complains that my cousin puts too much masa in the ones that she makes and picks them out of the pile, arguing with her daughter about whether or not a particular one is good enough. When we get together the next day we have a bounty of tamales, champurrado, refried beans, and rice that we share while waiting for midnight to strike. There is always enough for everyone to take home leftovers and I always look forward to having leftover tamales with a fried egg for breakfast that first week of January. It is one of the days I look enjoy most every year and I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world.
Being a Market Manager is a tough but rewarding job. What are you most excited to bring to Fresh Truck?
My commitment to helping people and positive attitude has always helped me continue on through the adversity inherent in this line of work. When it seems like something is impossible and the odds are stacked heavily against us, all we can do is continue to do the right thing and have faith that everything will work out.
We love a good food pun, give us your best one!
What does the caffeine addict say to his coffee every morning?
Fresh Truck’s mission has always been to radically impact community health by getting food to the people that need it most, which iswhy we are excited to be an approved Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) Retailer. According to the official HIP announcement under the Mass Grow Initiative, “The Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) matches your SNAP purchases of local fruits and vegetables when shopping at farmers markets, farm stands, mobile markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share programs.” HIP is not only the first program of its kind for SNAP recipients, but also to the state of Massachusetts. Its objective is to specifically support local businesses and farmers as well as reduce the economic constraints that limit low-income people from purchasing fresh produce.
Here is how it works: HIP enables SNAP customers on Fresh Truck to be automatically reimbursed on their EBT cards for all purchases of fruits and vegetables. All SNAP recipients are automatically enrolled in the program and due to the online systems, all reimbursements happen immediately after the purchase. The monthly amount available for reimbursement varies based upon household size and can be summarized as follows:
1-2 persons
$4O household cap
3-5 persons
$6O household cap
6+ persons
$8O household cap
With the addition of the Healthy Incentives Program, Fresh Truck will be able to continue to increase access and affordability of fresh food to more Boston families. The program is currently up and running at all of our year-round 14 weekly stops across the city. We are incredibly excited to make this incredible resource available to our families!
La misión de Fresh Truck siempre ha sido impactar radicalmente la salud de la comunidad al conseguir comida para las personas que más lo necesitan. Por esta razón, estamos muy contentos de anunciar nuestra certificación como uno de los primeros vendedores de Healthy Incentives Program (HIP). Según el anuncio oficial de HIP en el marco de Mass Grow Initiative “HIP coincide con sus compras SNAP de frutas y verduras locales al comprar en mercados de agricultores, . “HIP no solo es el primer programa de su tipo para los receptores de SNAP, sino también para el estado de Massachusetts, y parece ser un ejemplo para el resto de los Estados Unidos. Su objetivo es apoyar específicamente a las empresas locales y las agricultoras, así como incentivar a la gente a comer productos frescos y locales
Así es como funciona. HIP permite a nuestros clientes de SNAP ser reembolsados automáticamente en sus tarjetas EBT para todas las compras de productos fabricados en el Fresh Truck. No hay que registrarse para ser elegible, ya que todos los destinatarios de SNAP se inscriben automáticamente en el programa, y ya que nuestros sistemas están en línea, todos los reembolsos se realizan inmediatamente después de la compra.
Hay que gastar tus dólares de HIP, porque no se deshacen, aunque los reembolsos permanezcan en tu cuenta hasta el próximo mes. Así que es como conseguir dinero gratis para gastar principalmente en los mercados locales de alimentos mensualmente!
La cantidad mensual disponible para el reembolso varía según el tamaño del hogar y se puede ver aquí en corto:
1-2 personas
$ 4O limite mensual de casa
3-5 personas
$ 6O limite mensual de casa
6+ personas
$ 😯 limite mensual de casa
Ahora que tenemos nuestros sistemas en línea, también seremos capaces de servir a nuestra comunidad, dándoles uno de los únicos puntos de acceso móviles que lleva HIP en una base de todo el año a 14 paradas semanales en Boston. Estamos muy emocionados de agregar otro punto a nuestro modelo que nos permite entregar los alimentos más frescos a todas las comunidades que siguen liderando el crecimiento de Fresh Truck una bolsa de productos deliciosos a la vez! Para obtener más información sobre HIP, visite la página de información oficial
Blog / New Addition to the Fresh Truck team: Alessandra
We are excited to have you on board as our first Northeastern Co-op! What brought you to the Fresh Truck team?
I’ve spent the last four years attending Northeastern University, working on my BSBA concentrating in Entrepreneurship & Management as well as minoring in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. Throughout my tenure at Northeastern I not only followed Fresh Truck’s progress, I’ve worked and volunteered my way through school and picked up many skills and relevant experiences that led me to Fresh Truck. Whether it was in Human Resources learning about new hire onboarding, working as a cashier in customer service, tutoring Algebra, collaborating to form the group Queer Students of Color, creating or being a administrative support fellow in the LGBTQA+ Resource Center my experience allowed me to discover that my passion was to help, inspire, and create community. Therefore on my mission to find my 2nd and final co-op, after looking through hundreds of jobs and going through months of the self-development outreach I found the Community & Storytelling Co-op and found that I was not only up for the challenge but inspired by our mission to impact health & challenge food access issues. Working on the Fresh Truck team gives me the opportunity to not only learn and challenge myself daily but to expand my networks with the communities of Boston, bring people together, and documenting the story of Fresh Truck, our neighborhoods, and our customers.
Food is our favorite, obviously. What’s your favorite food memory?
One of my favorite food memories is making Mixed Berry Pie with my Gram, although we have made several pies together mixed berry was always my favorite and this was the first pie I ever learned to make. In Gram’s kitchen everything is always made from scratch; from the filling all the way down to the crust. At the time, I felt as if the family’s magic was being passed down and taught to me through the instruction of a secret family recipe. While my hands attempted to mimic the master’s, I kneaded the dough, mixed copious amounts of berries with other magical properties such as lemon zest that seemed to only add to the magic. Only later did I learn that this was no family recipe, but my Gram’s creative and frugal spirit adapting and developing her own recipe over time through trial and error and many pies that were apparently less delicious, but that was always impossible for me to believe. Her mentorship and wisdom that day not only inspired me not only to become a well-developed cook and baker on my own but to always incorporate diligence, patience, and creative thinking into all that I put out into the world.
There is no shortage of things to do around here. What are you most excited to start working on at Fresh Truck?
Building a community around the Fresh Truck and what we have to offer is the challenge I am most excited to tackle. I’ve always loved talking to and connecting people to each other, but it is even more exciting to be doing it for a cause worth fighting for. I would love to tell the stories of our customers and translate to the world how our Fresh Cash program is changing the way we deliver health & wellness solutions in Massachusetts. I want to make sure that Fresh Truck is not just your weekly food market providing delicious & nutritious food to Bostonians, but also a place where people can come see their friend’s & family while also taking part in a community-based shift in food culture. As always I have big goals for my role at Fresh Truck and look forward to getting to know more about Boston.
Have any good food puns?
What does myself & Fresh Truck have in common? We’re kind of a Big Dill
Blog / New Addition to the Fresh Truck team: Alessandra
Blog / New Market on the Block – Fresh Truck & The Trustees
You may see a new mobile market rolling through Boston neighborhoods this summer. On July 6th, The Trustees launched a new mobile farmers market initiative to support local farmers and increase access to fresh food.
The Trustees approached us with the idea of an all local mobile market when the project was in its early stages and we were excited to share the insight and expertise we’ve built up over the past four years. “Our mission has always been to address the community health challenges linked to poor food access by bringing fresh food to Boston residents where they live and work,” said Josh Trautwein, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Fresh Truck. “There is more demand for creative food access solutions than we can meet and we are happy to be part of the solution by supporting partners in Boston and beyond who want to launch mobile markets and build connections to healthy food.” The pilot season will from from July 6th to November 4th and they currently have four weekly market stops in Dorchester in Roxbury. We look forward to continuing to work with them as they grow!
The Trustees Mobile Farmers Market carries a wide selection of seasonal vegetables from Powisset Farm in Dover, along with local fruits, milk, meat and eggs. The pilot season of the Trustees Mobile Farmers Market is funded by a grant from the USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program and was developed with the support of our team and the Boston Public Market.
Blog / New Market on the Block – Fresh Truck & The Trustees
Every year we work our partners at Boston Public Schools to combine their work around health and wellness with access to fresh food for their families. As a celebration of our partnership, we took a look at all the programs we did together this school year.
