Have you ever heard of Market on the Move? I hadn’t, until my Mom sent me a link about it and told me she and my Dad were going to check it out. At first I was skeptical… Market on the Move seems too good to be true. I mean, 60 lbs. of produce for only $10??? What was this, a cult?
(source)
Before I go into how amazing Market on the Move is, let me assure you: it is not a cult! Just because it is hosted in church parking lots does not mean you get accosted by church goers trying to convince you to redeem your soul by going to church. It’s not like that at all.
What Market on the Move is is this:
“Market On The Move provides a farmers’ market atmosphere at various locations throughout Metro Phoenix and Tucson areas where partners and supporters of this program can come on a regular basis to pick up the free produce for distribution.”
Market on the Move is designed to save produce that would otherwise be thrown away in landfills and bring them to people in Phoenix and Tucson at very reduced prices, thereby giving people a chance to get cheap, affordable produce and save the environment at the same time.
According to the Market on the Move website, volunteers work to:
“Rescue about 30 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables; distribute over $45,000 worth of produce; provide over 23 million meals; help more than 460,000 families in need; and distribute fresh produce to more than 300 food banks and agencies across Arizona and throughout the United States.“
At the locations around the Valley, the ‘farmer’s market’ stations, basically, you pay $10 and get a boxful of fruits/veggies (depending on what’s in season) and you save food from going to waste and crowding up landfills. Sounds awesome, right? 
Lucky for us, we live literally a mile away from the closest MOM (you can find locations on the website I linked to above). When we got there, we paid our $10, signed in, and were given a box each. Blake and I decided to divide and conquer, since the lines were fairly long, so Blake went to one line and I went to another. There were three lines in total, and you queue up, wait your turn, pick your produce (you can only get a certain number of produce, for example only 3 bell peppers, only 10 carrots, etc.), and move along your merry way.
Word to the wise: Don’t ‘accidentally’ cut the line like I did. I got dirty looks like no other… it was an accident though. DON’T DO THIS. There is a method to the MOM madness!
This is what Blake and I ended up with:
My box, full of tomatoes!
Blake's box, full of corn and jalapenos.
We could have gotten a lot more, but we don’t know how to can and aren’t really super informed on how to freeze veggies without them getting funky so… we stayed way under 60 lbs. That said, we guess that we saved about $10-15 by getting the produce from MOM vs. going to Sprouts or the other farmer’s markets around the Valley.
MOM is basically like a CSA… only cooler Not hating on CSAs, but it’s really cool to be able to pick what produce and exactly how much of it you want…
Some people went crazy today and got a ton of tomatoes… I admit, I went a little overboard and got more than I normally would, but I think I’m going to puree the leftover tomatoes and add it to the pasta sauce we had earlier this week. Also… I loooove grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato, so you know, I might be eating a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches this week
MOM happens every other week, and you can be sure Blake and I will be there two weeks from now! If you live in Phoenix or Tucson, you have got to check MOM out!
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