{"id":253964,"date":"2026-05-01T14:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/253964\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T14:06:19","slug":"new-grant-aims-to-bring-mobile-produce-stands-to-st-pete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/253964\/","title":{"rendered":"New grant aims to bring mobile produce stands to St. Pete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The application period opens Friday for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stpete.org\/residents\/grants___loans\/pelican_grant_program.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg\u2019s new PeliCAN grant program,<\/a> which is designed to bring more fresh food access to underserved neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p>The goal of the new grant program is to make fresh produce more accessible to St. Pete residents in areas that either don\u2019t have a grocery store or easy transportation to one.<\/p>\n<p>The 17 different neighborhoods that are being <a href=\"https:\/\/cms5.revize.com\/revize\/stpete\/Healthy%20Food%20Action%20Plan%20Booklet_2024-Pg7_v17.pdf?t=202604071503050&amp;t=202604071503050\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">targeted have been identified by the USDA as Healthy Food Priority areas.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sarah Wiemert, Health Planner for Healthy St. Pete, said four applicants will be awarded the grant. They will receive a produce vending trailer and all the resources they need to start a mobile produce business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re giving them the infrastructure, the business training, and the administrative help to start a business being a mobile producer vendor,\u201d she said. \u201cThey will receive a trailer, they will drive it around town and stop in neighborhood areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hope is that these mobile produce stands will help fill the need that residents have for fresh food when they can&#8217;t make it to a grocery store.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wiemert says this grant is geared towards residents who don\u2019t have prior experience operating their own business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe barriers to access this program are low,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Jen and Charles Little, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/thelittlefruitcart\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who run \u2018The Little Fruit Cart\u2019,<\/a> say they were encouraged to apply. They want to help bring fresh produce to South St. Pete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have some friends that live in certain areas where getting to a supermarket and having that healthy, fresh accessible fruit and produce is not as available,\u201d Little said.<\/p>\n<p>Information on how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stpete.org\/residents\/grants___loans\/pelican_grant_program.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">apply for the new grant is available here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The application period opens Friday for St. Petersburg\u2019s new PeliCAN grant program, which is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1564,274,558,28,2287,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-253964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-angie-angers","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}