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Stony Plain Road isn’t a food desert — it’s a swamp where fast food and high-salt canned soup from dollar stores are the best options on a tight budget.

But that can change, said co-ordinator Ashley Bouchard, who stood beside brightly-coloured tables of Food4Good’s pop-up fruit and vegetable outdoor market Thursday.

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She sold cucumbers for 85 cents and a two-pound bag of carrots for $2, using donated and salvaged produce to cut prices to half that of a mainstream grocery store.

And that’s not all. This month, Food4Good put a down payment on a former pawnshop at 153 Street and Stony Plain Road. The aim is to open Edmonton’s first permanent alternative grocery store and community kitchen by the end of 2019.

“It’s just a fantastic idea,” said Carrie Ganie, who volunteers once a month to run pop-up markets and buys any misshapen vegetables to make soup at home.

She’s one of many low-income residents helping to build the dream. She spent six years as a single mom, living on welfare and going to school, and said healthy food is so expensive.