Mobile Market

Putting the miles where it counts to increase access to fresh local foods.

À la cARTe

Putting art on the menu through artist-led interactive activities on the road.

 

A mobile market is a vehicle for change, bringing food out of the aisles and on the road to areas which lack access to healthy, nutritious foods. Sprout's relationships with local growers and producers will put the freshest fare en route to rural communities, meeting them where they are.

A variety of foods from fresh produce, eggs, meat, cheese, & grains, stock the shelves of this grocery store on wheels. All are welcome to stop & shop!

The Mobile Market accepts all forms of payment: Credit, Debit, SNAP-EBT, Cash & Check.

Spend $10, Get $10! Community members shopping with SNAP-EBT benefits can now double their dollar at the Sprout Mobile Market! Swipe your EBT card and we will match it, up to $10 toward your purchase. Learn more about Hunger Solutions's Market Bucks program at hungersolutions.org/programs/market-bucks

While the Mobile Market is focusing on just a few pop-up locations to start, community members are invited to contact Sprout to recommend a location that could benefit from access to the mobile grocery store.

 

À la cARTe 

When you eat á la carte, you create your own delicious dining experience. The À la cARTe Initiative is driven by artists who cultivate creative experiences where food, art, and culture intersect.

As a component of the Mobile Market shopping experience, we're working with a cohort of artists to create portable artist studios called art carts. The À la cARTe Initiative seeks to increase in food and arts accessibility due to the mobile nature of the carts and market. These artists will increase their capacity through use of the carts and through the relationships created throughout this project.

Find these four À la cARTe artists on the road and enjoy their activities when they pop-up alongside the Mobile Market!

Project FAQs

​What’s the À la cARTe Initiative?

The À la cARTe Initiative seeks to increase food and arts accessibility in our rural region. By creating portable art studios, four artists are coming together to cultivate creative experiences where food, art, and culture intersect.

​Who are the artists?

The À la cARTe artists include Lisa Jordan (Brainerd), Maria Ervasti (Staples), Tressa Hills (Big Lake) and Heidi Jeub (Little Falls).

Check out the artist bios below!

​Where do you pop-up?

The first pop-ups are alongside the Sprout Mobile Market to connect food & art at scheduled stops in Staples, Baxter & Crosby. However, these mobile art studios are a new resource to amp up activities at any kind of event or party. You can contact the artists directly to learn about their rates and other details on how to bring the art cart to your event.

​What’s the Mobile Market?

The Sprout Mobile Market is a grocery store on wheels! A variety of foods from fresh produce, eggs, meat, milk, cheese, & grains, stock the shelves, and all are welcome to stop & shop.

​WHY FOOD & ART?

There are a number of challenges to keeping fresh, local food options in our region. Our rural-to-rural approach seeks to increase food accessibility and affordability by connecting the produce of very small family farms to community members who lack access. Community engagement in public health interventions have shown to positively impact health behavior and health consequences. Coupled with the Mobile Market shopping experience, we believed engagement activities could draw more customers, further impacting the economy of our local growers and community health. Taking the lessons learned from the Growers & Makers Marketplace, we knew that artist-led engagement opportunities would take community members beyond the shopping experience and deepen social and cultural connections.

What is sprout?

Sprout MN is a non-profit food hub that works to support the local food system in a variety of ways. Primarily, Sprout aggregates and distributes local produce from very small family farms to help create markets that move local food to local people. At the Sprout facility in Little Falls, we host events, cooking classes, and indoor winter markets, all to create positive experiences & economic opportunity connecting local food, art, and culture.

WHO ARE THE SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS?

Sprout Mobile Market and À la cARTe Initiative are funded by the McKnight Foundation, Otto Bremer Trust, Lakewood Health System, and Mardag Foundation. The project is coordinated by Sprout MN, Region Five Development Commission and Five Wings Arts Council.

Heidi Jeub, Little Falls
Heidi is a visual artist, bookbinder, public artist, and a teaching artist that travels throughout the state of MN teaching foundations of art and design. Her Tiny School of Art + Design is designed to help people understand the arts through exposure to the way an artist thinks and plays, and to emphasize that art can be linked to food, culture, technology and life.

---

Lisa Jordan, Brainerd
Lisa serves as the Executive/
Artistic Director at The
Crossing Arts Alliance. As a
felter, she creates in an art
form that is less understood
than painting or drawing.
Jordan is an ambassador for
this art form in our region
and has introduced the art
to hundreds of students
through various workshops
and demonstrations.

---

Maria Ervasti, Staples
Maria is a K-12 Art Educator
and travels to several area
schools to teach art classes
to students. In September
2019, she will be teaching at
Verndale Public Schools. Her
experience with community
building techniques and
teaching art classes in a
variety of circumstances
and demographics gives
Maria insight into meeting
each person where they are.
Maria will focus on painting
as the medium for her
art cart, the Creative Cart
Studio.​

---

Tressa Hills, Otsego
Tressa is the owner of
Marlee Designs and is a
regular vendor at the Spout
Marketplace. The Happy
Little Art Cart will include
sessions such as painting
pottery for a small plant
while learning about herbs,
jewelry making, creation of
seasonal ornaments, and
salt scrubs to teach how
food products have other
uses.

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