Fruits, Veggies & Microfinance Bring Healthy Food to Low Income Street Corners in NYC Green Carts

New York City is addressing Team Obama's 'eat your fruits and veggies' challenge by launching Green Carts, a fleet of 1,000 mobile food carts for lower-income New York neighborhoods. The NYTimes writes that across the city's boroughs, Green Carts will deliver fresh produce at reasonable prices.

Michael Bracho, left, and Edwin Feliciano selling produce at the the corner of East Fordham Road and Decatur Avenue in the Bronx. via NYTimesIt's not clear whether the city can sustain all 1000 carts. About 200 are rolling now. The government-financed Green Cart program will soon deliver $1,000 all-weather terminals to 15 vendors, to pilot food-stamp debit cards. Currently, the program doesn't accept food stamps.

'Microloans' are a cornerstone of the Green Cart program, which is another reason why this story caught my eye.

We're committed to advancing the microloans concept on Anne of Carversville and are delighted to have caught the attention of Nobel Prize winner MuhammadYunus.org, who is sending very high quality traffic our way.

The repayment rates on microloans globally is outstanding, and we support microloans as a key advancement strategy that improves women's lives, in particular. In many countries, microloans are only earmarked for women, because their repayment rates and business success rates are much higher.

The NYC Green Cart initiative is funded by Laurie M. Tisch's Illumination Fund, a charity that has donated $1.5 million over two years to provide capital for Green Cart micro-loans for basic purchases, like the $2,000 food carts. The Illumination Fund teams up with Acción New York, a nonprofit organization that helps those who do not qualify for bank credit.

via Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Sell Well From a Pushcart in Bronx 'Food Desert'