Produce carts are common enough that they no longer garner much attention, especially around farmers markets. Aside from running them over during high-speed chase scenes, it seems easy to forget about them altogether. So one design firm redesigned the ubiquitous cart, adding pedals and a folding system of trays that can haul up to 150 pounds of fruit and vegetables.
The result was the Mattapan Mobile Farmstand, from Boston-based nonprofit design collaborative Building Research + Architecture + Community Exchange. BR+A+CE (pronounced "brace") designed and built the human-powered mobile farm stand as the first project in support of its mission to create new community spaces that engage social, economic, and cultural issues.
BR+A+CE is a group of designers, engineers, students and fabricators cofounded by architect and Rhode Island School of Design professor Hansy Better Barraza.
"With design, it has to look good and it has to perform well," said Barraza. "The only way to really do that is to ... be interdisciplinary — have everyone at the design table."
Pedal-powered, cargo-carrying tricycles are increasingly popular in hip neighborhoods in European and North American cities, and have been widely used in Asia for decades. BR+A+CE designed their own version on a large-framed tricycle with a unique cargo box that contains four bays on two levels, each of which holds two produce bins for a total of eight.
The mobile farm stand is a Transformer for the eco-conscious. When it comes to a stop on its route, the rider unlocks the two cargo box lids and pulls up on the back edges of the top bays, which swing upright to display their contents and give access to the lower bays. The lids are angled over the upright bays, and the front and back bays open in opposite directions, giving the impression of offset wings and making it easier for shoppers to crowd around. Fully loaded, the rig weighs about 500 pounds.
"The whole idea of unfolding is to provide shelter," said Barraza. "It provides shade like a typical conventional farm stand."
"In Barranquilla [Colombia] they still use mules to carry vegetables and fruits -- very fresh -- to one's front door," said Barraza, who was born there.
The mobile farm stand operates in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston, which is heavily populated by Caribbean immigrants. Many area residents grew up buying produce that was sold from farm carts. The project organizers were conscious of the cultural link the community has to the concept of a mobile farm stand, said Barraza.
BR+A+CE aims to collaborate with community groups on projects that are sensitive and sustainable, said Barraza. The mobile farm stand project is in collaboration with the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition and nearby organic grower Brookwood Community Farm. Initial funding for the project came from an Indiegogo campaign.
The City of Boston ponied up a $4,500 matching grant to the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition to operate and maintain the mobile farm stand and train the young riders who put the human in human-powered. The grant is part of a vigorous city campaign to promote fitness and nutrition to fight obesity and diabetes.
The stand made its debut on a sunny Saturday last month at a farmers market in Mattapan. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, who made national headlines this summer when he took a swipe at a homophobic fast food chain, cut a ceremonial ribbon on the mobile farm stand.
While the stand's initial six-week season wrapping up last Saturday, the coalition plans to expand the number of stops next season and possibly also the number of days it operates each week, a premise made easier by the eight new riders trained this season. They also plan to add a second mobile farm stand if more money comes through.
Barraza hopes the city will build on the project's initial success and fund mobile farm stands in other neighborhoods, she said, citing New York City's $1.5 million Green Cart program, which brings a produce-selling variant of the city's ubiquitous push carts to low-income neighborhoods.
Who knows — perhaps the famous Boston-New York rivalry will take on a green hue.
