2024 Pilot Mobile Market with Trellis for Tomorrow
Introduction: A Collaborative Solution to Food Insecurity
Food insecurity is a complex challenge, often rooted less in the scarcity of food and more in barriers to access. For many communities, fresh, healthy food is just out of reach due to transportation limitations, economic constraints, and the simple distance to the nearest grocery store or farmers market. In response to this challenge, The Best Route and Trellis for Tomorrow launched the 2024 Pottstown Mobile Market Pilot, an innovative social enterprise designed to prove a model for bringing nutritious food directly to the community.
The purpose of this case study is to narrate the story of the 2024 pilot season, analyzing its operational model, its measurable impact on the Pottstown area, and its significance as a replicable social enterprise. This document explores how a strategic partnership and a community-driven approach successfully built a more accessible and equitable local food system, laying the groundwork for a fully integrated, sustainable venture.
The Core Challenge: Bridging the "Last Mile" to Healthy Food
To effectively address food insecurity, it is crucial to understand its root causes. Beyond economic hardship, physical barriers often create significant hurdles. A lack of reliable transportation or the sheer distance to a full-service grocery store can prevent individuals and families from accessing the fresh, healthy food necessary for their well-being. The Pottstown Mobile Market was designed to directly confront these challenges.
A mobile market is, in essence, a "farmers market on wheels." This model provides a direct and powerful solution to several key problems. Mobile markets are specifically designed to:
Serve communities in low food-access areas.
Bridge the "last mile" for individuals who lack physical or economic access to healthy foods.
Overcome common barriers related to transportation and vehicle access.
By bringing the market to the people, this model eliminates the need for residents to travel long distances, creating a convenient and reliable source of high-quality food. The following sections detail the visionary organizations that came together to implement this solution in Pottstown.
The Partnership: Combining Vision and Community Engagement
Successful social ventures are rarely built in isolation; they thrive on strategic partnerships that combine unique strengths to achieve a common goal. The Pottstown Mobile Market Pilot is a prime example of this synergy, born from a collaboration between The Best Route, a social enterprise focused on food systems, and Trellis for Tomorrow, a community-based organization dedicated to youth development.
The Architect: The Best Route's Social Enterprise Model
Founded in 2023, The Best Route, LLC, is the driving force behind the mobile market's operational framework. The organization’s overarching vision is to utilize and develop mobile markets to help make local food systems stronger, more accessible, and equitable. This mission is guided by a clear set of core values:
A passion for making local food systems stronger, more accessible, and equitable.
A belief in dignified access to high-quality food for all people.
A commitment to a community and culture-driven approach.
A reputation for being reliable and engaged in their work.
The Best Route’s long-term strategy included a vertically integrated "seed to table" operational model to ensure a consistent supply of high-quality, local food. The 2024 pilot served as the critical proof-of-concept for this vision. Its success was the direct catalyst for the next phase of growth, leading to the launch of the My Mobile Market Farm and the My Mobile Market Kitchen in Gilbertsville, PA, in 2025.
The Community Anchor: Trellis for Tomorrow's Goals
Trellis for Tomorrow brought deep community roots and a focus on youth empowerment to the partnership. Their involvement was driven by two specific, mission-aligned goals:
Provide meaningful work and leadership opportunities for Trellis youth.
Integrate existing Trellis programming through the market.
This partnership was therefore designed to achieve dual objectives: increasing dignified food access for the wider community while simultaneously creating invaluable professional and personal development opportunities for local youth.
The 2024 Pilot in Action: Operations and Strategy
The success of the 2024 pilot was underpinned by a well-defined operational strategy. Every element—from the selection of market locations to the diverse sourcing network and inclusive payment options—was intentionally designed to maximize community access and impact.
Market Presence: Schedule and Locations
To ensure consistency and reliability, the mobile market operated on a regular weekly schedule at key community hubs. The 2024 pilot season locations were:
Wednesdays : Bright Hope Community
Thursdays: Rolling Hills Community
Fridays: YMCA/YWCA Complex
Select Saturdays : Pottstown FARM
The addition of specific Saturday dates later in the season suggests a responsive strategy, allowing the pilot to adapt to emerging community needs and partnership opportunities.
Sourcing Strategy: A Network of Local Producers
The market's offerings were a direct reflection of the local agricultural landscape. The sourcing strategy was a collaborative effort, combining produce grown by community partners with products purchased from a robust network of regional farms. This approach not only ensured a fresh and diverse selection for customers but also strengthened the local food economy. Key sources for the 2024 season included:
Trellis For Tomorrow Gardens
Pottstown Area Food Collaborative (PAFC) Partners
Lundale Farm
New Hanover Lutheran Church
Sylvan Allgyer (Eggs)
Frecon Farm (Fruit)
Weavers Orchard (Fruit)
Ensuring Accessibility: A Multi-Faceted Approach
Accessibility was the cornerstone of the mobile market model, addressed through both geographic and economic strategies.
Geographic Accessibility: The market traveled to where people need it most. By setting up in neighborhoods and central community locations within the Pottstown community, the pilot program effectively brought healthy food options directly to residents, removing transportation as a barrier.
Economic Accessibility: The program fostered a dignified and inclusive shopping experience that complements charitable food programs. While charitable food programs support a specific population, the mobile market provides a dignified way for every individual to access fresh, quality food. It achieved this by accepting all forms of payment, including government assistance like SNAP/EBT and Farmers Market Nutrition Program (FMNP) checks. To further reduce economic barriers, shoppers paying with SNAP were provided with a discount or matching dollars, stretching their food budget and encouraging the purchase of fresh, local products.
This comprehensive strategy set the stage for a season of significant community impact, as demonstrated by the pilot's final metrics.
Quantifying the Impact: Key Metrics from the 2024 Pilot Season
The following metrics provide a clear, quantitative picture of the pilot's success in meeting its community food access and youth development goals during the 2024 season. The data highlights a strong community reception and a robust operational performance.
2024 Pottstown Mobile Market Pilot: Final Metrics
These figures tell a powerful story. The distribution of over 6,000 pounds of food demonstrates a tangible contribution to local food security. The fact that nearly a third of this produce (32%) was sourced directly from Trellis and PAFC partner gardens shows a deep integration with community-led agriculture. The redemption of 86 FMNP checks provides direct evidence of successfully reaching a target demographic often underserved by traditional markets. Furthermore, the engagement of 36% of shoppers in the loyalty program indicates the pilot was successful in building a reliable, repeat customer base—a key factor for long-term sustainability. Finally, the employment of three youth staff for a total of 238 hours confirms the pilot's success in meeting its goal of providing meaningful work experience.
The Road Ahead: From Successful Pilot to Sustainable Future
The remarkable success of the 2024 pilot season has laid a strong foundation for future growth and long-term sustainability. The positive community response and proven operational model have paved the way for expansion, with the primary plan to expand to a full 20-week market season in 2025, supported by the newly launched farm and kitchen operations.
This local success also fuels The Best Route's broader mission. Through its "My Mobile Market Consulting" service, the organization leverages its hands-on experience and expertise to help other organizations create or enhance similar programs across North America. By providing mentorship, training, and best practices, The Best Route is actively working to fulfill its goal to "inspire others to do the same," helping replicate the Pottstown model in other communities facing similar challenges.
Conclusion: A Model for Community-Driven Change
The 2024 Pottstown Mobile Market Pilot is more than a story about food; it is a compelling narrative about the power of strategic partnership, iterative growth, and community-centered design. By combining the social enterprise vision of The Best Route with the deep community roots of Trellis for Tomorrow, the pilot effectively proved a model for addressing food access barriers while creating valuable opportunities for local youth.
The pilot’s success demonstrates that the mobile market is a highly effective and adaptable tool for social change. The Pottstown pilot serves as a proven, replicable blueprint for any community seeking to leverage a social enterprise model to systematically dismantle barriers to food access.
