Rain or shine, this UAF alum is working all the time
June 30, 2020
By Elizabeth Talbot
Soldier, student, business owner — Erica Moeller really has done it all. Her latest endeavor, a mobile food market, has become a Fairbanks favorite since she launched it in spring 2020.
Her company, The Roaming Root, sells only Alaska-made or -grown food from a vintage bus. Moeller’s goal is to increase the connection between those who grow or make our food and those of us who eat it. Even during a crisis, Moeller said, she wants to connect her customers to “local goodness.”
After ending her military career in August 2013, Moeller wanted to pursue something different. She knew that the transition to civilian life would be challenging, so she turned to the university for support.
“Honestly, leaving the Army and developing a new career was pretty daunting,” she said. “The Army was my only ‘adult’ employer. It was all I knew. I didn’t have too many plans after graduation besides just getting there and trying to learn to be a civilian along the way.”
Moeller chose UAF because Fairbanks felt like home to her. “I realized that I already had an established group of friends and a home and community here,” she said. “So I decided to stay.”
Although Moeller completed her bachelor’s degree in biology in 2018, putting it to use in the traditional sense did not suit her. Life had something different in store.
“I realized about half way through my degree that field work isn’t for me,” she said. “I love camping and hiking, boating and adventuring, but I prefer to do it on my own terms. So, I began exploring other options.”
First, she and her partner started a chicken farm, with the hope of turning it into a full-time food supply for the Fairbanks area. The margins were too small to continue, but the experience taught her how farmers operate in the community. She realized they most needed a sales outlet, which led her to create The Roaming Root.
She began working out the logistics, a task where her time as a soldier proved quite useful. “I was a logistics officer, so my focus was supply chain management and transportation,” she said.
“After starting the farm and learning how hard it is for farmers to reach their customers, I realized that this town doesn’t need another food producer,” she said. “We have plenty right here. Our access to local food was a supply chain management problem, not a supply problem. The Alaska Small Business Development Center gave me the idea for putting the market on wheels, which keeps my overhead low and gives it a unique flair. Around that same time, I saw a bus for sale. The rest is history!”
In Moeller’s bus-based market, customers can find items such as fresh veggies, handmade soap, delicious hot sauce and even quail eggs. The ever-changing inventory is remarkably varied. Moeller even made home deliveries during the closure caused by COVID-19 so customers could continue to enjoy her local products while in lockdown.
Loyal customer Kristina Miller said she most frequently purchases greens, root vegetables and sourdough bread, but the mobile store’s variety has inspired her to try new foods and recipes.
“Roaming Root had fresh Alaskan mussels that are just delicious,” she said. “I never actually made mussels before but I've heard good things and found a recipe. They're super easy.”
Miller tried a drunken mussels recipe using Sourdough Dan’s Bread, which was reportedly “really good.”
“Roaming Root has fun things that come into season that I like to try,” she said. “It's expanding what we cook at home and what we eat.”
Another fan of The Roaming Root, Nickol Dameron, likes that the inventory is always growing.
“There is this Bullwhip Hot Sauce from Barnacle Foods out of Juneau that I buy for all of my friends and family. It is so yummy,” Dameron said.
Although Moeller was not born and raised in Alaska, she is an Alaskan at heart. Reading about the state’s wood bison reintroduction project motivated her to pursue a biology degree at UAF. She was interested in conducting similar research, but her goals evolved when she learned that a doctorate or post-doctoral degree would be necessary to do that type of work. Still, she was set on finishing her degree and continued on that path until completion.
Other experiences at UAF helped her along the way. Working in the Mammals Lab at the UA Museum of the North provided her with supportive mentors. Curator Link Olson and collections manager Aren Gunderson, along with the grad students she worked with, were instrumental to her success while earning her degree.
“I worked for Link and Aren for the first two years of my undergrad,” she said. “They were understanding and took time to answer all my insane questions about the various critters we were working on. They both mentored me in the lab, teaching me specifics on lab protocol and best practices for preserving research-quality specimens.”
Moeller also mentioned her friend Kerri Nicholson, a biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, as a mentor and supervisor. “Her teaching me best practices and methods in the lab helped me become a better rounded and more detail-oriented biologist,” Moeller said.
This alum never scares away from challenges. The same drive that got her through her degree program keeps her business ambitions thriving. There were hiccups along the way. Balancing things like how much backstock to keep and making sure supply and demand meet up were challenging for Moeller in the beginning, but she said that it’s been a smooth and exciting ride.
“It’s a cliché, but you have to do what you love,” Moeller said. “Do something that makes you want to go to work in the morning. I left a job with the government to do this, taking a huge pay cut in the process, but have never felt more blessed.”
Follow this link to find out when and where you can find Erica Moeller and her store on wheels.
Elizabeth Talbot is alumni relations coordinator with the UAF Alumni Association.