Fresh Truck reaches hundreds of Boston families and individuals every week. Whether it’s through our Pop-Up Events, Weekly Market, or FreshRx Program we provide fresh food that ends up in the cabinets, refrigerators and dinner plates of communities across the city. Fresh Truck becomes a part of our neighborhoods, we know our customers and their stories and they know ours. Which is why we are excited to start ‘Fresh Truck Community Beet’ to share and celebrate the incredible stories of food, health, and community that we hear every day.
For our first ‘beet’, we are focusing on our Hyde Park weekly market stop at 1137 River Street in front of the Thomas M. Menino YMCA. This location was developed in partnership with Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital’s Community Health and Wellness department and is one of our first FreshRx food prescription locations. Every Thursday we are joined by nutritionist Allie Lang RD who prepares healthy recipe samples and provides nutrition information to patients as they shop.
When we pull up in front of the YMCA at 3:OO every Thursday Cathy Sisto is always one of the first customers waiting for the market to open. She is a Quincy resident and has lived in the Boston area for nearly her entire life. Cathy isn’t just shopping for herself she regularly shops for her friend Mary, who is on oxygen and is unable to drive or visit a grocery store.
Cathy and Mary have been friends for over 4O years, so when Mary became sick it was a given that Cathy would be helping out because they think of each other as family. When our FreshRx Program with Brigham Women’s Faulkner Hospital started up in Hyde Park, Mary was one of the many patients who received $10 a week to spend at the mobile market. Cathy began shopping for Mary to take advantage of the opportunity to not only get food every week but also find innovative ways of preparing food to support a healthy lifestyle.
“Fresh Truck has changed our way of eating, we have been cooking more healthy food and it’s more affordable than you’d expect. For $1O dollars you get a lot of stuff and it lasts very long. I like it because it is easy to move down the aisles and its close to parking, making it so easy to transport my groceries after. And I’ve never brought home anything that was bad or spoiled!” – Cathy
When it comes to her favorite produce items to purchase and cook from on the Fresh Tuck she says, “The fresh carrots. Nothing like fresh carrots. They are always expensive in the grocery store. I often cook for Mary because she cannot cook, and I like to make zucchini & summer squash with a little olive oil, garlic, onions, with salt and pepper.” Cathy also chats with BWFH nutritionist Allie on Thursdays and enjoys the recipes and samples, “I tried the chickpea dill-lemon salad that the nutritionist made, I liked it so I took home the recipe and made it for Mary and she really liked it. It was delicious.”
Cathy & Mary’s relationship with Fresh Truck and the impact the market has on their life is an incredible example of the stories that fuel us every day!