The Guilford College Bonner Center for Community Service and Learning announced that its Mobile Oasis program received $50,000 in funding from the Veggie Van project through the University of Buffalo (UB).
One of nine projects chosen to take part, the University of Buffalo Veggie Van project will help Mobile Oasis expand its current mobile produce market. The Mobile Oasis will operate markets in up to four neighborhoods in Greensboro that will be part of the study.
“We want to know if having these mobile markets in communities that have limited access to fresh produce leads to changes in what people are eating,” said Lucia Leone, Assistant Professor of community health and health behavior in UB’s School of Health and Health Professions and principal investigator on the study.
The research team received more than 50 applications when it solicited proposals from interested agencies across the country last fall. Guilford’s Mobile Oasis team, led by Bonner Hunger Fellows Mallory Cerkleski '20 and Ana Huckins, was invited to Buffalo to meet with researchers and the selection committee.
“This is a huge achievement for our program and our students. It represents years of hard work and planning with the community, governmental agencies, the Guilford Farm, the Bonner Center, and the Food Justice Club,” says James Shields '00, Director of the Bonner Center.
The Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation in North Carolina supplied additional funding to support the Mobile Oasis in the Greensboro market.