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 access to healthy fresh food. Making visits to 29 stops each week, including schools and health and community centres (including Fazakerley hospital), to boost access to healthy food, help tackle health inequalities, and improve nutrition and life chances.

Similarly, to a traditional greengrocers’, the Queen of Greens bus prioritises stocking local and seasonal produce where possible including produce from farms in Lancashire and Cheshire, with a focus on quality and choice.

The routes are strategically planned to make sure the mobile greengrocer delivers affordable, fresh fruit and vegetables to communities across Liverpool and Knowsley identified as ‘food deserts’, including 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 Feedback Global’s project Alchemic Kitchen, 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 Paul encourages 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, to help champion better local food provision and support the venture as a viable business long term, with the potential to expand in future.

The bus will also help reduce the environmental impact of people’s weekly shop by reducing the need for shoppers to travel, reducing packaging, and selling food in small amounts so people buy only what they need and can afford.