Tampa Bay Food Banks
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St. Petersburg is trying to address a lack of access to fresh foods in low-income areas with a new program.
Applications open next month for the city’s PeliCAN grant program.
The PeliCAN Grant will offer starting capital and stipends, technical training, and mentorship to people for the purpose of building a mobile healthy food store.
Sarah Wiemert is a health planner with the City of St.Petersburg.
Wiemert says this is important for the city as they have 17 USDA-identified “Healthy Food Priority areas”- mostly in South St. Petersburg.
“Each of the census tracts has a different demographic profile that illustrates the risks of food insecurity differently. But a large part of it is transportation access and economic access, so this program addresses both of those,” Wiemert told WMNF.
She says the program is the next step in the city’s Healthy Food Access plan.
“The direct feedback we heard from that plan was that we want neighborhood produce options. We want affordable, healthy neighborhood produce options.” Wiemert said.
Wiemart says the program is targeting people who know about the food issues in their community, have part-time availability, and access to a vehicle.
The grant application opens May 1st.
The city will hold virtual education sessions, with the first one on Monday, April 13th, via Zoom.