Kroger Brings Grocery Store on Wheels to Louisville Neighborhoods

The Kroger Co. ⁠— along with Louisville, Ky., food bank Dare to Care and the city government's Louisville Forward ⁠— are bringing a Zero Hunger Mobile Market to neighborhoods with limited or no access to fresh groceries. The single-aisle grocery store on wheels is stocked with fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods. 

Customers can pay by debit card, credit card or EBT, with no cash on the truck. According to Dare to Care, the Zero Hunger Mobile Market launched this month, but the Courier Journal reports that it actually started making rounds in July. The trailer plans to make 35 stops at 29 locations this month, every day of the week except for Wednesdays and Saturdays. 

"It does not have to be a brick-and-mortar store for us to provide access to healthy food for people," Erin Grant, a spokeswoman with Kroger's Louisville division, told the the Courier Journal. "That might not always be the solution. There really are other ways."

Grant added that the company wanted to make the market seem as much like one of its stores as possible, so the trailer offers two refrigerated units for meat, dairy and eggs; rows of shelves for pantry staples; and walls of fresh produce. 

Cincinnati-based Kroger employs nearly half a million associates who serve more than 11 million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and 2,761 retail food stores under a variety of banner names. The company is No. 2 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.