The parking lot at St. Mark AME Church on Campbellton Road began to fill up well before 10 a.m. Tuesday. The Fulton Fresh Mobile Market, a white box truck with “Follow me to freshness” painted on the side, was already parked outside as people filed into a large room in the church basement.

About 100 people, mostly older adults, came for the presentation and a bag of fresh food. Only half a dozen raised their hands when asked whether it was their first visit to Fulton Fresh Mobile Market.

Among the regulars are Margaret Tillman and Paula McDuffy. They both attend St. Mark AME Church — that’s where McDuffy heard about the program, she said. Tillman and McDuffy said they’ve both cooked at home recipes they got from mobile market presentations.

“They’ve been coming here for several years,” Tillman said of the mobile market. “We even did it during the pandemic.”

During COVID-19 lockdowns, produce was handed out as a drive-through, she said.

The recipes are usually easy to make, McDuffy said.

“If you can do it here on the table, you can make it at home,” she said.

The Fulton Fresh Mobile Market is visiting six spots in Fulton County that fall within a “food desert,” as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. An area is a food desert if it has at least 100 households that lack transportation and are more than half a mile from a supermarket, or if the area has either 500 people or a third of the population more than 20 miles from a supermarket.

This was the fourth week of the summer’s first session, which ran through June 27. The second session runs from July 9 through Aug. 8. It’s free and open to the public with no registration required.

Participants get a nutrition class, food preparation demonstration, and a bag of fresh in-season produce. The demonstration features the produce that’s being given away.

The hourlong event at the southwest Atlanta church regularly attracts about 100 people, and so does an appearance at Roswell Adult Recreation Center, said Cecilia Tran, Family and Consumer Sciences agent with University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Other mobile market locations draw 60 to 80 each time, she said.

Inside the church Phyllis Cain, LaZavia Grier, Deborah Mallory and Tran stood behind a cloth-covered table. All four work with UGA Extension in Fulton County. Mallory gave the crowd food preservation and nutritional tips while the others mixed ingredients in big metal bowls. Then the recipe explanation got underway.

“Today we’re doing a spinach and romaine strawberry salad,” said Tran, a registered dietitian. She added spinach, onions and strawberries to the bowl of lettuce.

“Here we’ve got a poppy seed dressing, and here we’ve got plain, nonfat Greek yogurt,” Tran said. She ran through ways to add protein and possible substitutions or extras.

Grier handed out a short survey.

“This is your ticket to the free produce,” she said. It would have to be handed back in exchange for the bag of fruit and vegetables.

Grier also passed out a card with the day’s recipe for both the salad and its dressing, six servings for less than $12. Several people in the crowd said they made the previous week’s recipe for turkey and squash; all previous recipes, and much more information, are available at FoodTalk.org, Grier said.

Cain parceled the finished salad into plastic sample cups for the audience.

“Those of you who tried the recipe, did you like it?” Grier asked after a few minutes. The crowd chorused agreement.

“Well, great news: You will be receiving strawberries today,” she said.

Finished surveys in hand, the audience filed outside to the truck. Participants usually get 10 to 12 pounds of produce, said Shirley Dodd, Fulton Fresh Mobile Market coordinator. Tuesday’s bag included a carton of strawberries, Vidalia onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, apples and bananas, she said.

“It’s a variety. It’s different each time, but it’s a nice bag,” McDuffy said.

McDuffy said she values the information on healthy eating, watching sodium and sugar. Tillman agreed; one tip she picked up, in addition to checking labels closely on canned vegetables, is to rinse those vegetables to remove some excess salt, she said.

Because life in Atlanta is fairly expensive, it’s easy to assume that residents throughout the area have ready access to groceries, Tran said.

“In places like this, it’s not that way,” she said.

Doctors urge people to eat healthily, but that advice doesn’t automatically grant access to healthy food — or mean that what’s available is good-quality or cheap, Tran said. Instead people spend scarce grocery dollars on items that will keep longer, she said.

The Fulton Fresh Mobile Market helps increase access to fresh and nutritious fruit and vegetables.

“But we only get to bridge that gap for a short span,” Tran said. UGA Extension works with other partners in the Metro Atlanta Food Consortium in hopes of providing similar help throughout the year, she said.

The number of people who came shows the program’s value, Tillman said.

“There is a shortage of food for people, and this has been a blessing for many of us,” Tillman said.

Fulton Fresh Mobile Market locations through Aug. 8:

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday