Kelley Frances Fenelon, Class of 2009
The Nashville Mobile Market (NMM) is a non-profit social enterprise hybrid that functions to alleviate food insecurity in Nashville, Tennessee. NMM currently operates in neighborhoods where physical, financial and educational barriers limit access to affordable healthy food, particularly fresh produce. In Nashville’s ‘food deserts,’ residents face both a lack of nutritious food and an abundance of unhealthy convenience options; many residents also have limited mobility, a lack of transportation, and/or little experience with cooking fresh foods. NMM’s 28-foot trailer is outfitted as a mobile grocery store that offers produce and select non-perishable products at fair market prices. The market’s locations have become sites for customers and volunteers to engage and learn together, building relationships and evolving the program to better suit individual neighborhoods’ needs. Community involvement and volunteer participation have become the backbone of NMM in its work to create a sustainable impact for long-term change.
