The Queen of Greens is an initiative set up to provide people with better opportunities to shop for nutritious food closer to their home or workplace.

The Queen of Greens buses take fresh, low cost fruit and vegetables to neighbourhoods with limited or no access to affordable, fresh fruit and vegetables. Making visits to 30 stops each week, including schools and health and community centres (including Fazakerley hospital), the aim is to boost access to healthy and affordable produce, help tackle health inequalities, and improve nutrition and life chances.

Similar to a traditional greengrocers’, the Queen of Greens bus prioritises stocking local and seasonal produce, including produce from farms in Lancashire and Cheshire, to provide quality produce and choice. Queen of Greens also stock a growing range of subsidised organic fruit and veggies thanks to Sustain’s Bridging the Gap funding, making fresh, organic fruit and veggies accessible for everyone.

The routes are strategically planned to make sure the mobile greengrocer delivers affordable, fresh fruit and vegetables to communities across Liverpool and Knowsley that have been identified as ‘food deserts. This includes areas of Everton and Kirkby where residents have to travel more than a kilometre, or walk 15 minutes, to reach a supermarket selling ‘green’ produce. The bus also visits communities hard hit by food insecurity and where barriers to food access have been identified following community consultation.

The project is thanks to a unique partnership between charities: Feeding Liverpool; which is leading the city’s Good Food Plan strategy to create a city where ‘everyone can eat good food’, and Alchemic Kitchen; a Foodrise (formally Feedback) project with funding from Feeding Britain.

The partners worked with Liverpool City Council, local NHS providers, NHS estate consultants gbpartnerships, Liverpool and Sefton Health Partnership, Community Health Partnerships, Knowsley social housing provider – Livv Housing Group, and the Alexandra Rose charity, to ensure the route reaches a wide community audience.

The shop runs Monday to Friday and also includes stops in Anfield, Walton, Fazakerley, Kensington, Edge Hill, Belle Vale, Toxteth, Kensington, Wavertree, West Derby, Picton, Aigburth, Speke, Garston, Halewood, Aintree, Knotty Ash, Huyton, and Prescot. Both Everton and Kirkby are among the ten most economically deprived food deserts in England, and most of Knowsley (77% of the borough) is currently classed as a ‘food desert’.

The bus also carries recipe cards with ideas for healthy meals people can make on a budget, and helpful greengrocers encourage shoppers to buy in amounts they can afford; and even try a taste of unfamiliar produce before they buy.

Everyone is encouraged to shop on the new Queen of Greens bus regardless of income, this is to help champion better local food provision and support the venture to be a viable business long-term with the potential to expand in future.

Queen of Greens helps reduce the environmental impact of people’s weekly shop by; reducing the need for shoppers to travel, reducing packaging, reducing waste by selling food in small amounts.