The Center for Land-Based Learning held another popup for its Mobile Farmers Market at two different locations around Woodland earlier this week. The event, held first on Wednesday morning and then later at noon, was part of the Center’s Winter popup series, which began in January and runs through April.

According to the Center for Land-Based Learning’s website, the Mobile Farmers Market trucks are a part of the center’s Community Food Program, Follow The Tomato, which was created to help bring fresh, local, and sustainably-grown produce to food-insecure neighborhoods throughout Yolo County.

The mobile truck was first stationed outside of the Boys and Girls Club, located at 433 W. Cross St. in Woodland. The truck featured a selection of fresh produce such as spinach, collard greens, dino kale, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, cabbage, lettuce and more. There was also a selection of fruits such as navel oranges, grapefruit, mandarins, blood oranges, pink lady apples and more.

Serena Davini, community food program coordinator for the Center for Land-Based Learning, explained that the mobile market works with local farmers to sell produce back to the community.

“We drive to different places and park our truck to sell produce to the neighboring communities, and we purchase from small farmers within 100 miles. About 40% of the produce is grown by us, and then we work with other small farmers to grow the other percentage, but all is locally grown,” Davini said.

Davini mentioned that the mobile market works as a way to address the food insecurity issue that affects Yolo County.

“Our focus is about getting rid of the food insecurity in food insecure locations,” she explained. “So we go out to Esparto and Knights Landing because those are considered food deserts. We’re also in West Sacramento, which is also considered a food desert.”

Davini shared that the mobile truck started in 2014 as a farm stand that then grew to one truck and then two trucks, with six stops in Woodland and five in West Sacramento.

“The community loves when we’re out here,” Davini said. “Margaret McDowell Manor, a senior living center in West Sacramento, is one of our busiest stops. The ladies and gentlemen who live there usually line up about 15 minutes before we get there and wait for us to show up. So it’s a social hour for them as well, and they always want us to come back.”

Additionally, she shared that the mobile market will be making six different stops in Woodland every single week for their summer popups. The times and locations are still undetermined.

The next mobile market popup in Woodland is scheduled for Wednesday, April 9, at the Boys & Girls Club from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and then later at the Yolo County Health and Human Services Agency, located at 25 N. Cottonwood St., from noon to 1 p.m.

It will also be in West Sacramento on Tuesday, April 8, at Bryte Park and back at Margaret McDowell Manor.

For more information, visit https://www.landbasedlearning.org/followthetomato/.

Last year in June, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the Yolo County Health and Human Services CalFresh office for the launch of its Woodland-based mobile market. The event featured speeches from local government officials and others involved with partner organizations, highlighting the importance of the project and the collaboration that was needed to make it possible.

“We’re really trying to fight that by bringing our Mobile Farmers Market truck to neighborhoods that don’t necessarily have access to fresh, healthy food,” Julia Thomas, development and communications manager for the center, said at the June 2024 ribbon cutting.

Thomas explained that the communities the West Sacramento-based mobile market has been serving receive access to culturally relevant food that they would otherwise not be able to access.

“They tell us what they’re looking for, and then our farmers are able to grow it,” she emphasized. “And 41% of the food that we sold last year was grown on our small Riverfront urban farm in West Sacramento.”

Tania Garcia-Cadena, Woodland’s former mayor and executive director of the Woodland Food Closet, attended and argued that the mobile market will reach a community that has not had access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

“It’s going to help so many people in our community reach nutritious goals that they might not be able to do,” she said in June 2024. “A lot of people are not able to get out and maybe go to a traditional farmers market or grocery store. Bringing it to them is just an option that is really beneficial to them.”