Bethel Park market includes particularly healthy option

With apologies to Popeye, the road to eating healthfully isn’t as smooth as simply gulping some soggy greens.

“No one is asking anyone to just drop everything and start eating spinach,” Asanté Bierria said. “That’s not realistic, and that’s not how it should go. You’re putting too much pressure on yourself.”

Through his business, Pure Grub, he hopes to ease the transitional burden by offering internationally-inspired, flavor-packed food that meets the standards he has set of being organic, vegan, and dairy- and gluten-free.

South Hills residents can give it a try close to home when the Pure Grub truck visits the Bethel Park Recreation Farmers’ Market every other Tuesday, with the next scheduled appearance Aug. 9.

“The reality is, the more people who are exposed, then they’ll start clamoring for it,” Bierria said about healthier cuisine. “People don’t ask for it because they don’t know they should have it.

“We’re just realizing how backward our ‘food pyramid’ was. We’re just now really accepting the fact that the apple of today is not genetically the same as the apple of 10, 20 years ago. Things are just different,” he said. “So we have to own that, and then the changes will come, too.”

He credits operations manager and co-founder Ashley Tunney with bringing a lot to the table, so to speak, by implementing what she learned by earning her master’s degree in nutrition eight years ago from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Ore.

“Everything was so forward-thinking on the West Coast,” she said. “There was a little disappointment when I came back here, because I had opportunity for work with my degree out there that did not exist in this part of the country. But I will say that over the last seven or eight years, it really is coming along.”

In turn, Western Pennsylvanians’ response to Pure Grub has been growing, “not only because they want to eat healthier for themselves,” Tunney said. “There are a lot of people whose doctors have told them they need to cut dairy out of their diet, or they need to reduce the carbohydrate content in their diet.

“We get a lot of requests from people who want to know where we’re going to be, specifically for health reasons. They want or need Pure Grub’s food.”

Pure Grub offers catering and can be found at events and markets around the city, she said, and is available to vend at gatherings that are being organized.

Plans call for smoothie shots to be offered at Pure Grub’s kitchen, starting in August.

“Then we will be offering grab-and-go as the summer event seasons starts to slow down, most likely in September,” Tunney said.

Beyond encouraging healthy eating, the Pure Grub team strives to ensure that fewer people go hungry.

“It’s important to look after each other,” Bierria said. “There’s no excuse for food insecurity, just like there’s no excuse for homelessness.”

Pure Grub joined with Abeille Voyante Tea Co., plus the borough’s library and other entities, to secure a grant to purchase a community refrigerator.

“There are several business entities that help stock the fridge multiple times a week,” Bierria said. “It’s grab-and-go: Take what you need. Leave what you don’t.”

For the same purpose, he teamed up with Sara Eve, owner of PMA Tattoo in McKees Rocks, to place an insulated cooler box in front of her shop.

And beyond Pure Grub, others are making sure that it has plenty of healthy food.

“I have abuelas and grandmothers and elders who used to cook for family, who have found joy again because they’re cooking for a purpose again,” Bierria said. “It’s creating that energy cycle, almost to the point where I almost have to fight to make sure there’s room for my food in these boxes.

“The love pouring out is there, and that’s a necessary thing. And it spreads. It spreads like wildfire.”

For more information, visit www.puregrub412.com.