MetroMarket Expands to Year-Round Schedule, Doubles Capacity
The MetroMarket fresh food market will now operate year-round for the first time, running six days a week and reaching thousands more families across the bi-state region with fresh affordable food in areas where there are very few or no full-service grocery stores.
“Moving MetroMarket to a year-round schedule will allow us to serve more than 23,000 households and nearly 70,000 individuals in the coming year,” said Kristen Wild, president and CEO of Operation Food Search. “That scale of impact simply wasn’t possible with a seasonal model. Families need reliable access to fresh food twelve months a year, and now we can deliver it.”
MetroMarket will host 10 indoor markets each week starting December 1 with plans to add six sites in spring 2026, all with the flexibility to operate indoors or outdoors. By fiscal year 2026, MetroMarket is projected to provide 666 markets, compared to 388 in 2025 and 342 in 2024.
These latest program expansions are the next step in OFS’s growth trajectory, which has already seen steady increases in both markets offered and families served year over year. From January through September 2025 alone, MetroMarket served 9,953 households (29,859 individuals), up from 8,273 households (24,814 individuals) during the same period in 2024.
This phase of growth continues with the 2024-2025 addition of new MetroMarket Farmers trucks and a refreshed brand identity, as well as OFS’s August announcement of MetroMarket’s first expansion into Illinois. Through a partnership with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Food, Agriculture, Nutrition Innovation Center, MetroMarket began weekly stops in East St. Louis, meeting a major need in a city where access to quality groceries has long been limited.
The expansion is supported by a growing network of community partners. In addition to longtime supporters like Schnucks, Dierbergs, Bayer Fund, and Bunge, new partners now include Oak Street Health, Aetna, JJK FAN, EverTrue PACE, City of Dellwood, Beyond Housing, City of Pine Lawn, Devoted Health, United Healthcare, Korede House, and the Community Impact Network.
MetroMarket also sources from local producers such as BLK Lemonade, Blissfully Popped, Jubilee Farmstead, Wennemans Meat Co., and Bland Family Farm, keeping food dollars in the community while expanding access to healthy, affordable produce, meat, dry goods and more.
For more information about MetroMarket and its schedule of stops, visit www.OFSMetroMarket.org.
