"Sustainable Food Center is thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a Farm to School Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Together with our partners, the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Farm Fresh Initiative, The Common Market Texas, and the City of Austin’s Office of Sustainability, we will increase the amount of fresh, healthy, local food available in Central Texas schools."
"The group now wants to advocate for new policies to make the food in government programs more nutritious and higher quality. It sees policy as a powerful tool to boost the amount of local produce in school lunches and other government programs — and it’s optimistic about what’s ahead."
"The Biden USDA has a tremendous opportunity to respond to crisis by building a fair, equitable, and sustainable food system. This ambition requires the USDA to understand the harm of prioritizing the lowest bidder over larger societal goals. 'Ultimately, if low price is the basis from which the food system operates, you undercut the economy’s resilience.'"
“The American Heart Association aims to be part of the solution by connecting food-insecure families with quality, nutrient-dense produce through a partnership with The Common Market,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner.
"The vision at The Common Market is to catalyze impact and partnerships across the value chain in support of building community food resiliency. In the wake of the pandemic, our work of supporting regional agriculture and food access efforts: we see it as a crucial strategy in ensuring a sustainable and equitable post-pandemic transition."
COVID-19 has increased childhood food insecurity rates. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia collaborated with Food Connect and The Common Market to deliver produce boxes to food-insecure families. Food Connect leveraged technology to use texting, scale delivery integrations, and optimize routing to deliver 95,000 pounds of food over a 16-week period. COVID-19 has increased childhood food insecurity rates. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia collaborated with Food Connect and The Common Market to deliver produce boxes to food-insecure families. Food Connect leveraged technology to use texting, scale delivery integrations, and optimize routing to deliver 95,000 pounds of food over a 16-week period.
"There's an opportunity with every dollar spent on food to impact our entire society." –Haile Johnston
Philadelphians working across the food supply chain have a vision for our local food system. Hear what they think a healthy, just, sustainable, fair Philadelphia food system could look like.
As school districts throughout the country switched to curbside meals when the pandemic hit last spring, The Common Market was looking for ways to help increase families’ fresh food access.
“We realized that we also needed to shift and adapt within the constraints of COVID and the challenges that imposed on many food distribution efforts,” says Rachel Terry, national partnerships director for The Common Market, a regional nonprofit food distributor working to connect local farmers to schools.
Together, the two nonprofits will source fruits and veggies from about a dozen farms across central and southeast Texas, including contributions from Houston refugee farming collective Plant It Forward Farms and Fresh Life Organics, along with Gundermann Acres in Wharton County. Part of The Common Market’s statewide network, these farms have offered to sell the kale, sweet potatoes, and winter citruses like oranges and grapefruit that weren’t destroyed by the winter storm to the organizations, making this a win-win prospect for both the farms and Houstonians in need of fresh food.
“Thankfully, regional food systems are resilient. Our community partners are resilient,” Smith says. “It’s about feeding people and providing nutrition, and it’s also about quality, having our produce boxes communicate ‘you matter’ to families.”
"The Common Market has a great selection of local and sustainable products that meet our school's needs and wonderful customer service as well. Quality of products is always high and getting orders delivered timely is consistent. We can feel good about our contribution to our local vendors as well."
— Germaine Appel, Executive chef and Nutritional Planner, Soulshine Preschool