Eskenazi Health is proud to announce the grand opening of the Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market on Wheels, a mobile grocery store/food pantry hybrid that will be parked at various locations throughout the city helping eliminate barriers in obtaining healthy food.

The Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market on Wheels serves as a self-sustaining model to address food insecurity. Open to the public, patrons are welcome to shop the Fresh for You Market on Wheels for a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen proteins and produce, milk, bread, pantry staples, and more. In partnership with The Kroger Co., the Fresh for You Market on Wheels is stocked with Kroger-brand products priced at affordable rates. Proceeds from traditional sales directly benefit the Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market voucher program. At each clinical visit, patients who screen as food insecure are provided with vouchers for the Fresh for You Market, allowing them to shop the market for food items free of charge.

“Good food is good medicine, and we know that nutrition is often the key to not only preventing, but in some cases even reversing chronic disease,” said Lisa Harris, M.D., CEO of Eskenazi Health. “The Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market on Wheels helps make nutritious food accessible and affordable to our patients and communities across the city. We are excited to bring the Fresh for You Market on Wheels to neighborhoods across the city and look forward to seeing its positive impacts.”

The Fresh for You Market on Wheels is a former Indianapolis city bus donated by IndyGo. The 40-foot-bus has been innovatively transformed into a small grocery store, complete with fridges, freezers, grocery shelves, a filtration system, and a kitchen where an on-board chef will prepare hot, made-to-order food and host live cooking demonstrations, showing how to utilize items found on the bus in a variety of recipes.

“At IndyGo, we pride ourselves in going beyond the bus as demonstrated in our Food in Transit programming that provides free, fresh, locally-grown produce to riders at the Julia M. Carson Transit Center each Friday, along with cooking demonstrations, recipes and free ingredients to make healthy meals, courtesy of our partnership with the City of Indianapolis and Growing Places Indy,” said Inez Evans, IndyGo President and CEO. “Donating a bus to Eskenazi to launch the Market on Wheels extends our mission of filling the nutrition gap for those who need it most.”

Each weekday, the Fresh for You Market on Wheels will be parked at a different location in Indianapolis providing accessibility for community residents. Locations were selected based on the highest need among Eskenazi Health patients who identify as food insecure and for those living in areas with little to no access to traditional grocery stores.

The Fresh for You Market on Wheels is open daily from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at select locations. 

“The City of Indianapolis is proud to support the Fresh for You Market on Wheels as another food resource in underserved areas of our city,” said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett. “I want to thank Eskenazi Health and their many partners for helping to provide more residents with critical access to the one thing everybody needs to live a healthy life: access to healthy food.”

In addition to the fresh food offerings, an Eskenazi Health nutrition navigator will be on board the Fresh for You Market on Wheels at all times. They can help patrons shop for specific diets, answer questions regarding food allergies or nutrition labels, and connect them with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or other community resources. Nutritional programming and cooking demonstrations will also be offered in the near future. These initiatives provide a hands-on approach and focus on preventive health maintenance, pediatric nutrition and chronic disease management.

“Eskenazi Health has been committed to addressing social determinants of health for more than 160 years,” said Kimberly McElroy-Jones, Ph.D., DMin, MHA, FACHE, director of community partnerships for community health at Eskenazi Health. “The Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market on Wheels will not only help address food insecurity among our most vulnerable, but it will also provide valuable resources to help improve the health and wellness of our local communities.”

The Market on Wheels would not be possible without the help of partnerships from organizations including IndyGo; Cummins Inc.; The Kroger Co.; United States Department of Agriculture – Healthy Food Financing Initiative, administered by the Reinvestment Fund; Eskenazi Health Foundation; Indiana Department of Health; City of Indianapolis; Piazza Produce; and Indianapolis Fruit.

“Our mission at Cummins is to make people’s lives better by powering a more prosperous world, and the Fresh for You Market on Wheels does just that," said Jennifer Rumsey, president and CEO of Cummins Inc. "The Fresh for You Market on Wheels bus is powered by a Cummins engine, and we are proud to be part of the physical structure and the initiative as a whole, which will greatly benefit so many residents of Indianapolis."

“The Fresh for You Market is a wonderful concept for enhancing the availability of nutritious food for our friends and neighbors. Putting the market on Wheels means, together, we’ll be able to reach even more people, especially those in neighborhoods where food access is a concern, said Eric Halvorson, manager of Corporate Affairs, Kroger Central Division. “It’s for such neighborhoods that Kroger created the Zero Hunger | Zero Waste plan, to end hunger in the communities we serve. Our partnership with Eskenazi Health moves us closer to that goal in Indianapolis.”

The Market on Wheels is an extension of the Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market at the Frank & Katrina Basile Pavilion. It is located on the Eskenazi Health downtown campus at 720 Eskenazi Ave., directly outside the main entrance to the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital. Open to the public from 10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday – Friday, the Fresh for You Market at the Frank & Katrina Basile Pavilion offers a larger inventory of shelf-stable food items, cooking utensils, pre-packaged meals, a made-to-order lunch menu and more.

“The Fresh for You Market on Wheels was an idea that has long been in the works, and we are thrilled to see it come to fruition,” said Seth Grant, director of Eskenazi Health Food & Nutrition Services and System Food Strategy. “We are thankful to all who have joined us in the fight against food insecurity and are eager to see this initiative grow.”

For more information about the Eskenazi Health Fresh for You Market, please visit https://www.eskenazihealth.edu/food-as-medicine.