CofC Alums Creating Mobile Farmers' Market to Serve ‘Food Deserts’

Two College of Charleston alumni have launched a fundraising campaign to address disparities in Charleston’s food economy.

CofC alumni Kate DeWitt (left) and Lindsey Barrow have launched a Kickstarter campaign to get Lowcountry Street Grocery on the road.

CofC alumni Kate DeWitt ’11 (left) and Lindsey Barrow ’10 have launched a Kickstarter campaign to get Lowcountry Street Grocery on the road.

Motivated by evidence showing that low-income people living in so-called “food deserts” are at greater risk for diet-related health problems, alumni Lindsey Barrow ’10 and Kate DeWitt ’11 started Lowcountry Street Grocery (LSG), described as “Charleston’s first mission-driven, mobile farmers market.”

Barrow, the organization’s founder and director, graduated from the College in 2010 as a double major in political science and philosophy. He splits his time between his work with LSG and Rebellion Farm, where LSG leases land to grow its fresh produce. By night, Barrow works at Edmund’s Oast brew pub, freeing him up during the day to farm and to work on the bus project.

DeWitt, the organization’s associate director, graduated from the College with a degree in political science before going on to earn a master’s degree in the College’s Master of Public Administration program in 2013. When she’s not working on the food project, DeWitt serves as program coordinator for the Master of Public Administration program at the College.

A rendering of the Lowcountry Street Grocery mobile farmers market.

LSG hopes to raise $40,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, which ends May 5, 2015, in order to purchase a vintage school bus and convert it into a traveling grocery and farmers market. The bus would travel on a regular schedule to local community centers, neighborhoods, schools and businesses in and around Charleston, offering fresh produce, sundries, nutrition education, recipes, cooking demonstrations, healthy meal kits and onsite gardening instruction.