What would make a Hollywood makeup artist put down her makeup brushes and a fashion designer step away from her studio to start a farmers market?
Carmen Dianne and Kara Still say it was the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of Black America. The duo decided to join forces to establish Prosperity Market. The concept expands fresh food access in Los Angeles and makes it simple to support local Black businesses by setting up pop-up markets throughout the area.
Prosperity Market combines the functions of a mobile farmer’s market and a food truck. The market features Black farmers, food producers and chefs. It travels throughout Los Angeles with the aim of delivering nutritious, locally sourced food to local communities.
“I’m most proud of our resilience because this journey has not been easy, but with the outpouring of love with our vendors and our community, it really lets us know that we’re doing is important, so we’ll celebrate today and get back to work tomorrow,” Dianne told Good Morning America(GMA) as the market celebrates its second anniversary.
The mission of Prosperity Market intersects with so many of the challenges that our country is currently facing. It addresses the food insecurity millions of Americans face daily and the racial and class disparities determining which communities have access to fresh food and which do not.
This duo physically brings healthy, affordable groceries into underserved communities and sources food exclusively from Black farmers, growers and chefs. In turn, they directly stimulate the economies of communities that need it the most.
Since then, Prosperity Market has spread throughout the city, and it plans to open a mobile farmers market to address the problem of “food deserts,” where it is difficult for people to find fresh, wholesome foods at an affordable price.
By the end of the summer, they plan to launch their mobile food truck and market, which will be powered by solar panels and batteries and will be environmentally friendly and sustainable.
“We just want to keep growing, we want Prosperity Market to go nationwide,” Still told GMA.
To help Still and Dianne with their business goals, Green Giant donated $10,000. “This is going to help us build our operational capacity. Right now, it’s the two of us with our team — this is gonna help us get very far.” Dianne said.