Author: Annika

We are excited to have you on board as our first Northeastern Co-op! What brought you to the Fresh Truck team?

I’ve spent the last four years attending Northeastern University, working on my BSBA concentrating in Entrepreneurship & Management as well as minoring in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. Throughout my tenure at Northeastern I not only followed Fresh Truck’s progress, I’ve worked and volunteered my way through school and picked up many skills and relevant experiences that led me to Fresh Truck. Whether it was in Human Resources learning about new hire onboarding, working as a cashier in customer service, tutoring Algebra, collaborating to form the group Queer Students of Color, creating or being a administrative support fellow in the LGBTQA+ Resource Center my experience allowed me to discover that my passion was to help, inspire, and create community. Therefore on my mission to find my 2nd and final co-op, after looking through hundreds of jobs and going through months of the self-development outreach I found the Community & Storytelling Co-op and found that I was not only up for the challenge but inspired by our mission to impact health & challenge food access issues. Working on the Fresh Truck team gives me the opportunity to not only learn and challenge myself daily but to expand my networks with the communities of Boston, bring people together, and documenting the story of Fresh Truck, our neighborhoods, and our customers.

Food is our favorite, obviously. What’s your favorite food memory?

One of my favorite food memories is making Mixed Berry Pie with my Gram, although we have made several pies together mixed berry was always my favorite and this was the first pie I ever learned to make. In Gram’s kitchen everything is always made from scratch; from the filling all the way down to the crust. At the time, I felt as if the family’s magic was being passed down and taught to me through the instruction of a secret family recipe. While my hands attempted to mimic the master’s, I kneaded the dough, mixed copious amounts of berries with other magical properties such as lemon zest that seemed to only add to the magic. Only later did I learn that this was no family recipe, but my Gram’s creative and frugal spirit adapting and developing her own recipe over time through trial and error and many pies that were apparently less delicious, but that was always impossible for me to believe. Her mentorship and wisdom that day not only inspired me not only to become a well-developed cook and baker on my own but to always incorporate diligence, patience, and creative thinking into all that I put out into the world.

There is no shortage of things to do around here. What are you most excited to start working on at Fresh Truck?

Building a community around the Fresh Truck and what we have to offer is the challenge I am most excited to tackle. I’ve always loved talking to and connecting people to each other, but it is even more exciting to be doing it for a cause worth fighting for. I would love to tell the stories of our customers and translate to the world how our Fresh Cash program is changing the way we deliver health & wellness solutions in Massachusetts. I want to make sure that Fresh Truck is not just your weekly food market providing delicious & nutritious food to Bostonians, but also a place where people can come see their friend’s & family while also taking part in a community-based shift in food culture. As always I have big goals for my role at Fresh Truck and look forward to getting to know more about Boston.

Have any good food puns?

What does myself & Fresh Truck have in common? We’re kind of a Big Dill

In the last year, Fresh Truck has experienced overwhelming interest from our customers, partners, and supporters, calling for us to expand our programming and retail offerings. To grow our operations and better meet the needs of our community, we are rolling out the biggest renovations yet to one of our mobile markets.

Our goal is to be a full-service grocery store and one stop shop for our customers. This will have a huge impact on operating efficiency, product offering, and space allocation. We currently operate two mobile markets to execute all of our programs. The larger bus, Diane, named after one of our favorite customers and supporters, is used for our Pop-up Events at schools, health centers, and other community locations. The smaller bus, named 77, is used for our Weekly Market stops and will be the focus of the renovation project.

As you can imagine, a grocery store on wheels is no small project, so we have enlisted the help of a brilliant project team to help us get it done:

• Kipp Bradford an engineer in the MIT Media Lab is developing custom refrigeration compressors to keep our food cool. They need to be space efficient, durable and energy efficient.
• TriMark is supporting general contracting and equipment selection for the renovation. They are a national leader in foodservice equipment and design.
• Food+Future is a collection of multidisciplinary food innovators focusing on increasing understanding, trust, and access within our food system. They have brought us on as a ‘Friend of Food + Future,’ and they keep us on the cutting edge of food research, retail design, and technology.
• TBA – Our retail layout and in-store experience design partner will be announced soon! But we can tell you now, it’s gonna be sweet.

This week we began Phase 1 of our renovation by installing a refrigerator on 77. This unit will allow us to begin testing the demand for milk, eggs, meat and prepared foods. In addition to refrigerated products, we will also be testing demand for a variety of shelf-stable items through the spring. The results of these tests, along with a comprehensive market analysis will inform how we allocate space in the full-scale renovation.

To follow our renovation progress as it happens, follow us on Instagram @thefreshtruck!