THE FOOD TRUST

Farmers market and food bucks programs - to increase healthy food access in southeastern pennsylvania, tft works in collaboration with local farmers, community organizations, schools and community members to operate a network of over 20 farmers markets and farm stands in underserved communities across philadelphia. Many of these markets are located in lower income neighborhoods with low access to healthy, affordable food. The farmers market program continued its outreach efforts to promote the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables by providing on-site nutrition education and cooking demonstrations at a number of markets in underserved communities in philadelphia. Tft also continued its food bucks program, a coupon incentive program that provides market customers with a $2 coupon for free fruits and vegetables each time they spend $5 at the market using their snap (food stamp) benefits. Based on the success of the food bucks coupon program, tft continued expanding its healthy food incentive work across pennsylvania and camden, new jersey, to make healthy food more affordable for people using snap benefits. Food bucks are now accepted at 10 supermarkets across in philadelphia and one in pittsburgh. The organization has also continued to implement food bucks rx, a fruit and vegetable prescription program targeting low-income pediatric patients and their families, in partnership with cooper university hospital in camden.

Healthy corner store initiative - the food trust developed the healthy corner store initiative (hcsi) in 2004 to increase the availability of nutritious food in underserved neighborhoods that lack supermarkets or other fresh-food retailers. The initiative has since grown: the food trust works in partnership with local public health departments, commerce departments, community and economic development departments, healthcare partners, and community-based partners and residents to develop healthy corner store networks in both rural and urban communities. Food trust staff currently lead direct programming in over 1,000 grocery stores across six states. Additionally, staff has supported healthy food retail programming in small stores in more than 30 states as a technical assistance provider, sharing resources, including bilingual marketing materials and one-on-one training to help storeowners stock and sell healthy food. Tft employs hcsi ambassadors to identify culturally relevant healthy food for inventory, promote hcsi programming in their community, and help store owners improve and sustain the healthy retail environment. Another component of the food trust's hcsi is the "heart smarts" program, a store-based nutrition education model that includes lessons, taste tests, and incentives to encourage consumers to make heart-healthy choices as stores begin stocking new healthy products. In collaboration with local health care partners, tft offers free blood pressure, heart-risk assessment and/or anxiety screenings with counseling and referrals in some of the stores we work with.

Technical assistance - tft developed technical assistance to help public and private organizations promote good nutrition and increase access to nutritious foods throughout the united states. Tft's team shares the organization's deep knowledge base to replicate its successful, innovative programs and is comprised of staff with diverse backgrounds, including experience in public health policy, healthy food retail, federal nutrition programs, regional food systems and distribution strategies, healthy equity, and farm to school initiatives. Tft's technical assistance services include: healthy food retail (including supermarkets, corner stores, chain convenience stores and rural grocery stores), nutrition incentives, food distribution and regional food systems, healthcare/food system linkages and social determinants of health, farmers markets, food events, farm to school, farm to institution, early childhood and school-based nutrition education and adult nutrition education. Additionally, tft is a certified subcontractor on several major federal contracts with the u.s. Department of agriculture and the centers for disease control and prevention. Tft's staff works directly with federal, state, local, commercial and nonprofit entities on a wide variety of healthy food access programs and policy initiatives, ranging from provision of technical assistance to consulting support for larger programs and federal public health initiatives that align with the core values and mission of the organization.

Farm to school and farm to early care - tft provides training and technical assistance for schools, early care and education centers (ece), farmers, and other groups working to implement and sustain farm to institution programs and practices. In addition to helping centers build their capacity for farm to early care activities, tft led a multi-partnered statewide campaign to increase public and governmental support for farm to early care programs in diverse childcare settings, especially in underserved urban and rural areas. Tft released a new report, ready set grow: emerging strategies to support farm to early care and education in pennsylvania, which describes farm to ece, showcases providers adopting farm to ece practices across the commonwealth, and describes why access to good food and high-quality learning environments are critical for every child in pennsylvania. The need for equitable, resilient, responsive ece and food systems persists in pennsylvania, and this report highlights examples of how existing state-level systems can help advance farm to ece in every community. As a core partner to the national farm to school network, tft also coordinated, promoted and expanded the farm to school movement throughout the states of pennsylvania and new jersey. Tft continued work to better serve the supply side of the farm to school community through developing stronger partnerships with farmers, distributors, and other vendors. Tft also developed a racial equity framework to support more equitable program implementation and outcomes in community food systems and shared it across the agency.