Healthy food – especially produce – is essential to building a healthy community. People who eat more fruit and veggies are healthier; they are less likely to have heart disease, diabetes, and obesity than those without access to nutritious produce. Eating more vegetables is even linked to better cognitive performance in school! Unfortunately, St. Louis has a deficit of places to find fresh fruit and vegetables, especially local produce. Many of our neighbors don’t have a grocery store within a mile or more of their homes – instead, the only places to find food are corner markets stocked with sugary and salty snacks. Neighborhoods without a grocery store nearby tend to have high populations of people that rely on public transportation to get around, which is great for the environment, as it’s one of the greenest ways to commute, but it can make shopping for healthy food more complicated, especially if several transfers are needed to get to a store before or after work.
Luckily, there’s good news for those who regularly take green transportation to work – there is now a convenient way to get affordable, healthy, fresh, and local produce right on the Metrolink!
The Link Market connects people with fresh fruit, veggies,
The Link Market serves fresh fruit, veggies, meat, and more at the North Hanley and Wellston Metrolink stops. The market is run by Jeremy Goss, (he might sound familiar to those in the local food scene, as he founded the St. Louis Metro Market), Resenda Sykes, formally of City Greens Market, and Serena Bugett-Teague – these employees work hard to ensure their products are affordable and fresh for their customers. Both Link Market locations provide more than fruit and veggies – they also sell staples like noodles, pasta sauce, soup, and more – making grocery shopping easy and convenient for anyone using active transit for their daily commute.
Value added products like pasta sauce and soup are available at the Link Market
Goss recently purchased a former mail truck, with ambitions to help deliver fresh produce to vendors like City Greens Market and restaurants, helping farmers expand their markets while getting more local food to residents who might otherwise struggle to find fresh produce grown in the region.
The Link Market is open Monday-Friday from 9-5 – stop by during your commute and take home a taste of St. Louis’s finest foods! Follow them on Facebook to keep up to date on their latest news.
