'It's easier to buy a vape than an apple': How greengrocers on wheels could change the UK

A greengrocer on wheels could be coming to your neighbourhood next.

The Queen of Greens bus in Liverpool and Knowsley brings affordable fruit and vegetables to local communities where access to fresh and nutritious food is limited.

“It is making fresh fruit and vegetables available for people in spaces where it’s easier to buy a vape than it is to buy an apple,” says Lucy Antal, director of Alchemic Kitchen which runs the Queen of the Greens project.

“We’re all about access for everyone. We don’t put any barriers to people getting on the bus. You want to buy something from the bus, you get on the bus.”

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The team buys fruit and vegetables wholesale, so they can sell them at a more affordable price than supermarkets. They also take Alexandra Rose Charity food vouchers and Healthy Start vouchers to ensure those people who are most in need get their food for free.

“We take the view that you can get on the bus with a pound, and we’ll find you something,” Antal adds. “We also sell things singly. If you want one apple, one carrot, one potato, we’ll sell that. You don’t need to buy a big sack of potatoes. You just get what you need.”

It is an initiative which the government might look to expand or replicate in the long term. The government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has funded University of Liverpool research on the factors which influence the diets of people living in social housing.

As part of this project, researchers are creating a mapping tool to help direct Queen of Greens to areas where social housing residents have limited access to nutritious food.

This will expand its work beyond the community centres, schools, health centres and other locations the bus already visits and allow them to reach other areas which need support.

Professor Charlotte Hardman explains: “In areas where there is higher socioeconomic deprivation, we often find that people have very poor access to healthy, fresh food.”

Researchers hope to establish “robust scientific evidence” which will reveal more about the food landscape for people living in social housing and the experiences of those communities in terms of accessing food. In turn, that might lead to more funding for projects like Queen of Greens.

Queen of Greens started in 2022 and is now supplying fruit and vegetables to around 470 households a week. It currently has just one bus – and a backup van they use in case of repairs – but the hope is that they can grow to help more communities. This funding will help make that happen.

Peter Kyle, secretary of state in the DSIT, tells the Big Issue he would “love” to see mobile greengrocers like Queen of the Greens all over the UK.

“I want people to be eating healthily. I want people to be eating nutritionally, and I want people to be enjoying their food experience. And too few people in our country do those things,” Kyle says.

“I want everyone in every part of our country to experience the best of modern life. This is a progressive government. I’m a progressive politician. I want to make sure that those in the greatest need get the greatest opportunities to thrive in the modern world.”

The work in Liverpool is one of six projects which will receive £8.5 million in government funding through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). 

Other projects include ‘public restaurants’ (state-subsidised eateries) in Dundee and Nottingham, improving the take-up of free school meals in Wales, researching the role of community food markets in Glasgow, and improving the nutritional quality of food at pantries in Southampton, the New Forest and the Isle of Wight.

Kyle admits that the country “needs to turn a corner and start moving forward”. 

“Where you have kids going to school hungry, where you have parents who aren’t earning enough to feed their families correctly, then these are warning signs of a country which has to do better.”

It takes a range of organisations working together to make Queen of the Greens happen – from charity partners to housing associations – but they need money to continue to grow and support people. Antal hopes this government-funded research project is the start of making that happen.

“It will help provide us with hard data. I know this is something that does well, but you know how it is – you’ve always got to convince the politicos that these things work,” Antal says.

Kyle reiterates government messaging that Labour has raised the national living wage, set up breakfast clubs, expanded free school meals and plans to grow the economy and create more jobs in the future.

But there remains widespread poverty and inequality across the UK which is having a harmful impact on people’s health. The government is being urged to use these pilot projects as an opportunity to pave the way for change and reach communities which have historically been left behind.

“The cost of living crisis has been upon us and made it even harder for people to be able to eat,” Antal says. “It’s all very well being lectured on what you should be eating, but if you’re not making the access available, then it’s a pointless message.”

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