Wednesday is one of Beatrice Wade’s favorite days because she gets to go to First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Maryland to participate in a religious class and meet up with some friends.
Wade, 93, gets excited when her classes at the church are over at noon and she can go outside to take care of some shopping. She stops by the green decorated Curbside Groceries mobile truck to get the food she needs for the week.
“Coming to this truck is a lot quicker for me to get my groceries,” Wade said. “I don’t have to wait for somebody to take me to the grocery store.”
Wade said she lives in the Hill Road area, which is located about two blocks west of the church.
In central Prince George’s County, neither of the municipalities that she lives close to such as Seat Pleasant, the town of Capitol Heights or Fairmount Heights has a full-service grocery store.
Residents such as Wade are serviced by corner stores that tend to have a limited supply of groceries.
With many District and Prince George’s County residents living in areas known as food deserts—where full-service grocery stores are scarce—Curbside Groceries was born in January 2020 as a project of the Capital Area Food Bank to provide fresh food and vegetables to those areas.
Offering affordable produce, meat, fish and staple shelf foods, the Curbside Grocery mobile truck first appeared in Ward 8, then in Prince George’s County in January 2021.
Curbside Stops
In the District, the truck operates in Wards 7 and 8 from Wednesday to Saturday with stops at the United Medical Center, United Planning Organization, THEARC, Bright Beginnings, Wingate @ Vistas Apartment complex, the Bellevue Library, and the Villages of East River, according to its website.
In Prince George’s County, the website reports the truck operates Wednesday to Saturday with stops at First Baptist of Highland Park, the Rolling Crest and Victory Crest Commons, the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex, Hyattsville Middle School, Rainier Manor, Friendship Arms Apartments, Pleasant Homes, Vistas at Largo Lake, Francis Scott Key Elementary School, Ebenezer Church of God, and Carriage Hill.
What to Find with Curbside Groceries, ‘This Truck Helps a Lot’
Bryan Lew serves as a program director at the Capital Area Food Bank that oversees the Curbside project. Lew said Curbside is designed to meet the needs of customers like Wade.
“We want to make sure we reach customers that are on a budget and serve them fresh nutritious items,” he said.
On the truck in one compartment are fruits and vegetables such as oranges, apples, potatoes, and bananas. In another compartment, items such as cereal, ketchup, sweetened fruit drinks, grits, ketchup, and syrup are offered to customers. In the back of the truck are refrigerators designed to keep the food—especially the produce—fresh.
“Our produce offerings are buying one, get one free,” Lew, 53, said.
Lew said groceries can be paid for with cash, credit, debit and SNAP/EBT.
The Rev. Angela Taylor, an associate minister at First Baptist Highland Park, who specializes in mission work, emphasized the importance of Curbside Groceries for her congregants and the community.
“I could not turn down the chance for them to come to this church when it was offered earlier this year,” Taylor, 62, said. “This area is a food desert. The only option people here have is the KFC and carryouts. When bad food gets into people’s systems, it can cause high blood pressure and diabetes. The people in this area need healthy options. This truck helps a lot.”
