St. Louis Metro Market, a non-profit organization, was founded in 2014 by Colin Dowling and Tej Azad with the aim of providing access to affordable, healthy, and responsibly sourced food to underserved communities in the St. Louis Metro area. The co-founders were inspired by the plight of these communities, which suffered from a basic lack of access to healthy food due to crumbling infrastructure and minimal investment. The result was the creation of a coalition of partners, sponsors, and supporters that retrofitted a Bi-State donated bus, named “Turnip1,” with fresh vegetables and parked it directly in these communities.

The St. Louis Metro Market is now in its second year of operation and is poised to make a real impact on health and equity in St. Louis. The organization has been successful in addressing the problems of health, equity, and access in St. Louis by providing healthy, affordable food to those communities that need it the most.

Producers Josh Guffey, DP Levi Kirby, and editor Jake Huber captured the heartwarming story of the St. Louis Metro Market in a corporate video production for Vidzu. This story showcased the impact of the organization on the lives of people in underserved communities. The video featured the Fresh Start Garden, James Forbes, founder and CEO of Good Life Growing, an urban farming cooperative, and the community and customers the Market serves.

James Forbes highlighted the challenges faced by these communities: “From a food justice issue, there’s always fast food, a corner store, but no access to healthy food, and that correlates with an educational problem…with people (beginning) to attain higher education, which impacts their ability to get a good job, which impacts their ability to fix up your community, which makes it impossible to even pay taxes to fix your school system, let alone get the property appraised so your school system can get improved. It’s just a vicious cycle.”

The St. Louis Metro Market has been successful in breaking this vicious cycle by providing access to healthy food to these communities. The corporate video production by Vidzu showcased the innovation and problem-solving of the organization, which offers one small but impactful way to alleviate the systemic challenges to equity and opportunity in St. Louis’ underserved neighborhoods.

In conclusion, the St. Louis Metro Market is a shining example of how a coalition of partners, sponsors, and supporters can come together to address the problems of health, equity, and access in underserved communities. The corporate video production by Vidzu highlighted the impact of the organization on the lives of people in these communities and showcased the innovation and problem-solving of the organization. We applaud the St. Louis Metro Market and their partners for their hard work and dedication to creating a more equitable and healthy St. Louis for all.