There’s more than one way to solve a problem.

That’s one of the morals of a story published this week in the Suffolk News-Herald about plans for a mobile farmers market that will be launching at the end of the summer in Suffolk.

Large portions of the city have been designated as food deserts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food deserts are communities where residents have a difficult time getting fresh fruits and vegetables because they live more than one mile from a grocery store in urban areas and in rural areas, more than 10 miles.

In Suffolk, the most densely populated of the food desert is in the downtown area, but residents of rural parts of the city suffer from the problems associated with food deserts, too.

Those problems include lack of easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables and a preponderance of options for unhealthy food choices, which often makes it far easier to choose foods that contribute to diabetes, heart disease and other health problems than to choose foods that help reduce the likelihood of such problems.

In Suffolk, 32 percent of adults battle obesity, slightly higher that the 29-percent statewide rate, according to Virginia Cooperative Extension. About 11 percent of both Suffolkians and Virginians live below the federal poverty line, according to extension officials.

There are folks working to change the situation with Suffolk’s urban food desert by working to attract a grocery chain to build a supermarket downtown. But even a downtown supermarket would not change the food desert situation for people in Whaleyville, Holland, Chuckatuck and other remote parts of this largest city in Virginia.

The Virginia Cooperative Extension Service has landed on a great solution that will help everyone. A food truck-styled mobile farmers market will, beginning in August, make regular rounds throughout the city — taking water, as it were, to the desert.

Folks in different areas who don’t have easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables will be able to visit the mobile market when it’s parked in their communities, pick up a bag full of healthy goodness and walk or drive back home to enjoy it. The produce will be sourced from within 60 to 85 miles of Suffolk, officials said, and it will be brought to the city’s four food deserts on a rotating biweekly schedule. Beginning next year, it will make its rounds from April to January.

The mobile market, made possible by a $75,000 grant from the Obici Healthcare Foundation, is a great response to a real need in Suffolk. It will not completely satisfy the need that exists, but it’s a great start and a good example of looking for a creative solution to a problem.