Mobile Market Comes to Maupin
The Gorge Grown Food Network Mobile Farmers Market makes laps around the Gorge every summer selling local produce from small farmers in our area, and this year it’s coming to Maupin for the first time. The Mobile Market is a big white refrigerated van operated by Gorge Grown staff. They follow a series of scheduled stops around seven locations in the Gorge. Staff coordinate with farmers so they can sell goods to the market when the market is in their area, and then the market can take the food around the Gorge to resell. The new stop is in Maupin on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month from 12-2pm at Kaiser Park.
Mobile Market Manager Kiara Kashuba is really excited about the new stop in Maupin. “I’ve always wanted to serve South Wasco County, but it was really the invitation by the community that made it happen,” she says. The invitation came after the F.E.A.S.T. event in March, where community members identified the need to source more local produce in South Wasco.
“We’re able to connect more folks in South Wasco with fresh local food and develop connections with producers in South Wasco as well.”
That consumer-producer connection is really important in this area, where people are really interested in supporting local food, Kashuba says. The produce that she is able to buy from South Wasco, like blueberries and garlic scapes, is always first to sell out when the market is in Maupin.
In addition to supporting local farmers, the Mobile Market also prioritizes serving low-income community members. SNAP users receive an extra $10 match every time they come to the Mobile Market. In other words, for every $10 SNAP users spend, they get $20 of fresh, local food. For people who don’t qualify for SNAP but still need help paying for groceries, Gorge Grown offers a 25% discount. These programs help ensure that everyone has access to healthy, local, sustainably grown food and gives shoppers another way to spend their SNAP buying fresh produce.
“The response from the community has already been great! I’m looking forward to seeing how this could continue to grow the local food system in this area,” Kashuba added. The Mobile Market has acted as an incubator for potential farmers markets in the past. The weekly farmers markets in Mosier, Stevenson, and Goldendale used to be Mobile Market stops, but after growing community interest in local food sparked by the Mobile Market the communities established self-sustaining, community-operated farmers markets. Kashuba says there is an open invitation to anyone who is interested in selling their homegrown produce to come join her at the market on Wednesdays.
Anyone interested in collaborating can email her at kiara@gorgegrown.com.
The Mobile Market is scheduled to be in Maupin August 12th and 26th, September 9th and 23rd, and October 14th and 26th. If you text @MaupinMM to the number 81010, you’ll be signed up to get text reminders the morning before the market comes to town, plus a full list of what they’re bringing.
