The Food Trust

The Food Trust was founded in 1992 with the goal of making healthy food available to all. It first began with the implementation of nutrition education classes for inner-city children in the century-old farmers' market in Philadelphia and continued with opening new farmers' market in other communities.

The organization works together with neighborhoods, schools, grocers, farmers and policymakers to create a variety of programs that increase the availability of fresh foods and teach children to eat healthy.

School-based programs include lessons on the importance of good nutrition and physical activity through fun activities, introducing children to fresh, nutritious food with taste tests, classroom snacks and school markets and connecting students and teachers to area farms with educational farm visits.

Community-based programs aim at increasing the availability of healthy food in low-income neighborhoods, by bringing supermarkets to undeserved area, increasing the availbilty of healthy foods in corner stores and operating neighborhoods farmers' markets.

The Food Trust's mission is to ensure that everyone have access to affordable, nutritious food by providing nutrition education and greater availability of affordable, healthy food.

The Food Trust has opened four new farmers' markets in Norris Square, Lower Moyamensing, Grays Ferry and Point Breeze, recruited 200 schools and 400 corner stores across the city to participate in the initiative, and seen SNAP/food stamp sales double at farmers' markets participating in the programs.

The Food Trust works in a dozen states to help public and private organizations promote good nutrition and increase access to nutritious foods. And at the national level, The Food Trust is a lead partner organization for Voices for Healthy Kids, a new collaboration between the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation working to engage, organize and mobilize people to improve the health of their communities and reverse the childhood obesity epidemic.

The Food Trust was also named among the top five "high-impact" nonprofits working in field of health and childhood nutrition.