Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative (US)

Focus Areas 

• Health Justice: the collective movement to heal society and eliminate barriers that prevent individual and community well-being.
• Food Justice: aims to address disparities in nutritious, affordable and culturally appropriate food access, particularly for communities of color and low-income communities, by addressing land ownership, agricultural practices, distribution of technology and resources, workers’ rights, and the historical injustices communities of color have faced.
• Equity: fairness or justice in the way people are treated, specifically: freedom from disparities in the way people of different races, genders, etc. are treated.
• Healthy Food: foods that build and sustain human health.
• Healthy Food Business: retail or restaurant businesses like produce markets, cafes or stores that preference sales of healthy prepared and packaged foods that meet the definition of “healthy food”.

Funding Information

• Approximately $550,000 is currently available for grants. With this current funding amount, grants will have a maximum award of $50,000. There is no minimum grant award.
• Duration: Grant project activities must take place between January 1, 2025 – December 2, 2025.

Eligible Projects

• Eligible projects include many kinds of community-driven solutions to create a more just food system that supports communities to grow, sell, and eat healthy food. Projects could include growing or making food (gardening, incubator or community kitchens, etc), moving/distributing food (group purchasing, new delivery systems or solutions), selling food(retail or prepared), food waste recovery or food marketing, improving wages and/or working conditions in the food system, improving systems for free or emergency food or meals. Funds can also support collective work across organizations to grow, make, store, move, cook, or sell food.
• Funds can be for hard and soft costs for planning or implementation, including land, property, building improvements, and equipment. Expenses related to land, property and building improvements will need to be reviewed by the City for compliance with City regulations.

Eligibility Criteria

• This open call for ideas is for individuals, businesses, or organizations doing community-led work that contributes to an equitable and sustainable local food system. The overall goal of this funding is to support and increase equitable access to grow, learn about, and eat healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant foods.
• Applicants must be located in the City of Philadelphia. Nonprofit organizations, for-profit businesses, cooperatives or collectives working on food justice are eligible to apply. Retail and non-retail food businesses are eligible. Applicants must make a commitment that their businesses and other spaces will be tobacco-free.
• They welcome ideas and projects from any applicant that wants to build food justice in Philadelphia and embodies a health justice vision. If you have been working in food access for a long time and need some support to scale up and take the next step, they want to hear from you. If you have been community organizing and capacity building and see a clear way to include food justice in your work, they want to hear from you. If you are a budding entrepreneur with a fresh idea, they want to hear from you. If you make, grow, cook or sell food, they want to hear from you.
• Applicants who have previously applied to this initiative but weren’t selected are encouraged to apply again. Previously funded grantees cannot reapply for consecutive years of funding.

For more information, visit Reinvestment Fund.