Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

By Michelle Knapik
Environment Program Director

The beauty of the Sustainable Ag and Food System Funders Conference is its recipe for learning and relationship building. There were panel sessions that offered a rich mix of historical perspectives, policy issues, and movement building information, but nearly half of the conference was experiential and field-based. As a grantmaker in the space of local foods, farmland preservation, farming viability, and urban farms, I boarded the bus for the Healthy Landscapes, Healthy Communities tour. I expected to learn about new farming models, policy barriers, entrepreneurial opportunities, etc., but I didn’t expect to be moved by what the tour was truly about – the many faces of family farming. (more…)

A pay what you can café? With locally-sourced food and compostable take-out containers? You bet. New Brunswick based Elijah’s Promise is rethinking the traditional models of alleviating and ending hunger. Read more to learn about A Better World Café.  And if you missed last week’s guest post, read Re-imagining the Work of Ending Hunger, Part 1.

By Rev. Lisanne Finston
Executive Director
Elijah’s Promise

Everyday, across the state of New Jersey, people are forced to make difficult choices, such as: “Should I pay my rent and my utility bills, or buy food for my family?” and “Should I pay for my medication or buy food?” “Should I eat from the McDonald’s dollar menu one more time this week, visit the neighborhood pantry for some canned goods or just not eat at all to make it until the next check?” One of the most disturbing and extraordinary aspects of life in this very wealthy state is the persistence of hunger.

For those of us working on the front lines in the anti-hunger field, we have long been witness to the harsh realities and frankly alarming choices that people who are food insecure are faced with daily.

Just before the Recession hit, the numbers of people lining up for meals at Elijah’s Promise soup kitchen skyrocketed, as did the lines at emergency food centers across the state. The rate of food insecurity (that is the number of people who regularly skip meals, cut back on the quality and quantity of what they eat or rely on emergency food sources) mushroomed from around 8% to 15% in three years. A crisis and shock wave ran through the emergency food system in the state: more people than ever before needing help, and not enough food on the shelves to meet the swelling ranks of the hungry. Most remarkable was the reality that hunger had crept up to the traditional “middle class,” people who worked, owned homes, even volunteered and donated to their local emergency food center, now turned to us for help.

Long ago, we ceased being an emergency system and became a supplemental food system. Many of our patrons rely on food pantries and soup kitchens to fill the gap everyday, every week or every month. So when an economic or other crisis hits, we do not have the capacity to respond because we are already running at full tilt.

And, if you stop and look at all the good that we are doing, you will see that it’s not all good. Every food pantry and soup kitchen has different criteria for eligibility, different schedules and little accountability in insuring consistent service delivery. Most of our organizations have a one size fits all approach: you get what you are given, and there is no choice in the selections of canned goods in the bag, or food on the plate. Much of the food donated to our food banks and local organizations is either food that didn’t sell, food that is outdated, food that is damaged, and often it’s junk food like soda, candy and chips. Corporations get tax write offs to donate this food so people won’t go hungry. In addition, they save on garbage disposal fees, because much of this is, frankly, garbage and has no place in an anti-hunger system.

In the midst of this recession and expanded numbers of people facing food hardship, it became very clear that the way we are doing this work is just plain not working! There has to be a better way—a way to insure people have access to good food, in a way that is dignified, and in a way that is sustainable over the long term, so that we don’t find ourselves faced with such a crisis again.

So some folks from Elijah’s Promise teamed up with some folks from another local community based organization called Who Is My Neighbor, Inc. to imagine what this new way of approaching the work of ending hunger in our community might look like. Someone pointed us to an organization in Salt Lake City called One World Everybody Eats, a local community café. The café was founded by Denise Cerreta. Denise’s operation was unique: no menu, no prices, just good, fresh, organic food, available to all regardless of means. A few other spots had taken notice and also sprouted up. Could it be possible to create a truly community dining spot where all could eat good food, regardless of means, side by side, in a way that was self supporting and not reliant on grants and government support? We reached out to Denise to learn more.

The result of this re-imagining is a social enterprise partnership called A Better World Café, which opened in October of 2009, and was the fifth community café in the country. (the number is growing as others join in this movement, including Panera’s and Jon Bon Jovi).

A Better World Café is located in the Reformed Church of Highland Park, next to the Highland Park Farmer’s Market, and is open Monday through Friday from 11am to 3pm, with new Friday dinner hours starting this June. The café’s purpose is to help make a sustainable world where all may eat. The food is sourced locally, flexible portioning and compostable take-out containers reduce waste, coffee and tea is fairly traded, jobs were created for graduates of our culinary school, students in the culinary school help prepare food and gain skills, diners pay what they can and if they can pay more, they help subsidize those who can’t afford as much, people volunteer in exchange for a meal, others just pitch in to create sustainable eating for all.

I have to say, the food is wonderful, the feeling of community in the café embodies the meaning of hospitality, and this little enterprise is close to a break even bottom line. I really think that this is the step beyond the soup kitchen, and with some more dreaming, planning, collaborating and enterprising I think we can build a more sustainable, more dignified, more just and long term solution to hunger in our community. The way we’ve been doing it just doesn’t work.

Images courtesy Elijah’s Promise

Please welcome Rev. Lisanne Finston, the Executive Director of Elijah’s Promise, to the Dodge blog today. Based in New Brunswick, Elijah’s Promise’s mission is to empower lives, invite justice, and alleviate hunger, which they do in many creative, thoughtful and entrepreneurial ways: from their culinary training program, to their community gardens initiative, to A Better World Cafe, their “pay what you can” community kitchen in Highland Park. Elijah’s Promise is rethinking the traditional models of alleviating and ending hunger. Read on:

Culinary students at Elijah’s Promise preparing breads for A Better World Cafe (Monica Holder Photography)

By Rev. Lisanne Finston
Executive Director
Elijah’s Promise

There’s a lot of talk these days about “sustainability.” In the midst of this Great Recession (and from where I stand, it isn’t over yet!), we are all looking for ways to live more simply, support our local economy, reduce our “footprint”, care for those who are struggling to make ends meet, and ensure that we really do make things better in our community for the next generation.

At Elijah’s Promise, we have been talking about “sustainability” for many years. Our approach has been to work on developing more sources of locally grown food through purchasing directly from area farmers and expanding donations through groups like Farmers Against Hunger and Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Middlesex. Staff, volunteers and culinary students work hard to grow food, process this healthy food into delicious meals and freeze and store it for use year round. Imagine ratatouille made from Jersey Fresh tomatoes, squash and eggplant warming the palates and lifting the spirits of the homeless.

Harvesting kale and greens from the “Garden for the Hungry” quarter acre plot at the Cooperative Extension of the Middlesex County EARTH Center

Ratatouille prepared with locally grown ingredients

We are integrating this farm to table system into the soup kitchen, into culinary training, and catered meals for area schools and meals on wheels, and of course the sustainable fare at A Better World Café, all of which add up to over 200,000 meals of fresh healthy food into our local food system this year. Through this farm to table approach, we are combating the long-term and very expensive diseases of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity; and ensuring that our neighbors have good food to eat.

Each year we train over 70 people in culinary arts and place them in jobs throughout central New Jersey. These graduates, all formerly unemployed, are now working, paying taxes, paying rent, buying food, clothing and other goods for themselves and their families. Instead of taking money out of the “system,” these graduates are now putting significant resources back into our community, making it far more sustainable.

Culinary students at Elijah’s Promise

We have developed a catering business and a café to create employment opportunities for the very people we feed and train, and at the same time, they generate revenue to support our programs. That’s “sustainable.”

This cycle of social good, which harnesses the power of food to feed people and fuel a stronger, healthier, more “sustainable” community, is taking root all over the nation. It’s about ending hunger, providing access to good food, promoting health, fostering a healthier environment, strengthening our agricultural base, and making thoughtful economic development decisions.

During this recession, as we witnessed the highest levels of food insecurity in decades and the growing recognition that obesity and diabetes are public health issues that are directly connected to diet and food access, there is more attention and greater opportunity to not only ensure people have enough to eat, but that they have access to healthy, good food and the tools to feed themselves.

This “food revolution” as it is referred to, is more than just a call to “eat local,” or “buy organic.” It is a real grassroots movement to re-tool a broken food system that has rewarded the values of fast, cheap and efficient at the expense of nutritious, sustainable and equitable food. From the McDonald’s dollar menu to the local soup kitchen and emergency food pantry, highly-processed food (laden with sodium, high fructose corn syrup and other realities of this broken food system), have forced those who struggle at the bottom of our economic ladder not only to confront the inequities of health, employment, education, and housing (to name a few), but also must hunger for good food—a basic need and a basic right.

If we are to really engage in the work of ending hunger in our communities, then we must do more than collect cans for our local emergency food center. We must work to re-tool the food system from the field to the fork. Join us and many others across the state and nation in this exciting work as we join together to build a healthy, just, sustainable food system, so all may eat, and all may eat well!

Stay tuned for Part 2 next Wednesday.

Images courtesy of Monica Holder Photography (where noted) and Elijah’s Promise

Today is the last in our guest series with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and their partners on strengthening our regional food system. As you will read today, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is working creatively to connect young farmers with available land. How are they doing it? Read on:

By Marilyn Anthony, Southeast Pennsylvania Director
Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture

For twenty years, Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) has been working with farmers and consumers to transform our food system. We offer technical and business training to farmers, foster farmers’ markets and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), and connect consumers to a wealth of local food resources through Buy Fresh Buy Local activities. PASA’s focus is on the supply side of providing wholesome food for everyone.

Today PASA’s nearly 6000 members embody the transformative, positive impact of sustainable agriculture on the environment, local economies, and individuals’ health and wellness. It’s this potential for such meaningful work that beckons beginning farmers. And since the average age of an American farmer hovers around 57 (pdf), we all urgently need to cultivate a new generation of regional food providers.

PASA’s newest initiative, a land leasing program, tackles the main obstacle facing these aspiring farmers: lack of access to farm land. For generations, young people became farmers by being born into or marrying into a farm family. As the number of farms has decreased, as land costs have escalated, and as more young people grow up in urban or suburban settings, young people are shut out of farming.

The solution for aspiring farmers is to lease rather than purchase land. PASA’s land lease program, best described as a blend of “eBay and eHarmony,” will “match” new farmers with landholders of all sorts: land trusts, corporations and institutions with large campus settings, schools and universities, and private landholders. Parcels of land may be as small as ¼ acre or encompass hundreds of acres.

Tomatoes from Turning Roots Farm

To gauge the potential economic impact of putting new farmers on leased land, consider these fast facts:

- Pennsylvania has more than 425,000 acres of preserved farmland

- An intensively planted sustainable farm can produce 7,000 pounds of fresh vegetables in one season on a single acre

- Direct marketing of vegetables can generate revenues of $8,000-18,000 per acre

Working with MBA students from Temple University’s Fox School of Business, and funded by a Food System Implementation Grant from DVRPC, PASA is completing the design of a web-based leasing program to link landowners with aspiring farmers. In addition to matching services, PASA will provide access to lenders and investors, assistance with business planning and leases, resources for pro bono legal advice, and a strong set of environmental guidelines using the Food Alliance criteria for Sustainable Certification.

April marks the start-up of our first farm project at a remarkable location that augurs well for the success of the land leasing program.

Lundale Farm is an historic property in Chester County, Pennsylvania, owned by Samuel and Eleanor Morris since 1946. In the late 1980s, then-Pennsylvania Assemblyman Sam Morris was the primary sponsor of the House version of legislation that established a program to preserve farmland through the public purchase of development rights.

To honor their parent’s commitment to organic agriculture, the Morris’ children formed a nonprofit with the goal of blending for-profit farm enterprises with new farmer educational programming. Its mission statement explains that, “Lundale Farm envisions itself as a leader in demonstrating that mutually sustaining, diverse agricultural enterprises can be economically successful by fulfilling people’s desire for high quality, locally grown organic food. By doing so, Lundale Farm hopes to inspire other landowners in developing suburbs and exurbs to adopt intensive farming practices on their own land, especially land which is already under conservation easement. Furthermore, Lundale Farm will promote active agricultural use of land under easement to not-for-profit organizations holding those easements. Finally, Lundale Farm’s vision also includes a commitment to inspiring new farmers and providing education and training in sustainable agricultural models.”

Chris and TJ Costa of Turning Roots Farm

Lundale is the ideal spot for our first venture, and Chris & TJ Costa from Turning Roots Farm are the perfect trail-blazing farmers for this project. In many ways the Costas reflect the background, educational level, commitment and vision of many new and beginning farmers. Neither Chris nor TJ grew up on a farm, but through environmental concerns and experience with Outward Bound, they each formed a deep connection with land and its power to nurture through food.

Turning Roots was a small farm with a big mission. Through PASA, the Costas have the opportunity to expand their previous farming success by moving onto five acres of prime farmland with potential access to fifteen acres, more land than they could afford to buy. They are also closer to realizing their vision for Turning Roots by becoming part of a larger enterprise that shares the Costa’s commitment to organic food production, community engagement, social justice, and new farmer education.

Turning Roots at Lundale Farm is a seed planted this spring, nurtured by the resources of PASA’s land program, tended to by the skillful, caring farmers Chris and TJ, encouraged by the Lundale Foundation, and watched with great interest as dozens of other farmers and landowners enrolled in PASA’s land lease program. We expect great abundance from this seedling.

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Read the full series here:

Part 1: Working Together for a Stronger Food System
(Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission)

Part 2: Collaborating for Healthy Families
(Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger)

Part 3: A Food Co-op Does Much More Than Sell Food
(Weavers Way Co-op)

Part 4: The City of Locavore Love
(Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation)

Part 5: Eat Fresh Here: Farm to School Systems Change
(Fair Food)

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Special thanks to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, particularly Alison Hastings, for curating this series for us. Thanks also to all of our guest bloggers:  Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, Weavers Way Co-op, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Fair Food and PASA. We are inspired by and grateful for their food systems work in our region, and we look forward to hearing and sharing more about their successes.

Images: courtesy of PASA and Turning Roots Farm

Let’s talk about food. Today’s blog post, part of the continuing series with Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission on strengthening our regional food systems, comes from another grantee, Fair Food, who is thinking about access to fresh foods as a social justice issue. As you will read, Fair Food is working hard to connect regional farmers to institutions (like schools), who are significant meal providers, giving access to fresh foods for all.

By Deb Bentzel
Fair Food

Food systems movers and shakers have long been stymied about how to make locally grown foods, especially fresh produce more accessible, available, and affordable for low-income city dwellers. At the heart of this challenge is fairness. Farmers cannot lower their prices if they want to remain in business and low-income communities should not have to forego food that is affordable, delicious, nutritious, and stimulates the local economy.

Fair Food, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia, has spent the past 10 years working to better connect the region’s farmers with the wholesale marketplace. We’ve brought together wholesale buyers – chefs, retailers, public and private institutions, and hospitals – with farmers and producers, to help them establish good and lasting business relationships. In recent years, however, we have begun to explore how we can leverage our knowledge and partners to bring more local food to those with the least access.

The Farm to School movement is about access to healthy, locally-grown and -produced food for children. Targeted to public schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program, Farm to School efforts can range from implementing school gardens to providing locally grown foods in school meals.

We know how challenging it can be for schools to make even small changes to their operations and procurement practices—especially for the large urban districts like Philadelphia. With such a rich agricultural landscape surrounding Greater Philadelphia and with over 70% of children in Philadelphia eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, building a farm to school program and a new market opportunity for our region’s growers, just seemed like a good idea.

Fair Food started a pilot program in the 2009-2010 school year with 5 high schools. Thanks to champions from within the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), and their willingness to partner with Fair Food and other food-focused organizations, locally grown fruits and vegetables are currently being purchased and served in 25 SDP cafeterias across the city.

Fair Food, the SDP, and other partners accomplished this by starting small, building trusting relationships, and by making small changes first. Most significantly, the District leads this effort. Their buy-in, leadership and vision will ensure the long-term success of the program for years to come.

Collaboration has also been a key to success. Fair Food, The Food Trust, and the Philadelphia Urban Food & Fitness Alliance, have been knee-deep in “Eat Fresh Here,” our farm to school program since last September. By bringing our resources, creativity, and expertise together, we have been able to effectively and efficiently coordinate this program with other ongoing initatives. We have engaged youth across the city for their thoughts on fresh, healthy, eating, while supporting and empowering food services staff in cafeterias.

To date, over 52,000 pounds (about $50,000) of locally-grown produce has been purchased and served in the SDP’s 25 “Eat Fresh Here” sites. Cafeteria staff have received hands-on trainings and farm tours, engaged youth have been tasked with spreading positive messages around healthy eating and fresh foods, the team has created various marketing tools, and the word is spreading that Philadelphia is innovative, leading the way in the Farm to School movement.

The School District of Philadelphia plans to expand this program to 50 sites in the 2011-2012 school year, with an estimated “local food” budget of $250,000 for school meals. The District aims for long-term financial sustainability of this program. Their goal is to make local food procurement a written purchasing policy—good for our local kids, good for our local farmers, and good for promoting the larger farm to school movement. Fair Food looks forward to continuing to partner with the District, becoming more engaged with school communities, providing more in-depth evaluation of our program, and continuing to find solutions and build momentum for long-term, positive changes in school meals.

While we know Farm to School programs alone won’t solve the more deeply seated issues of racial, social, and economic inequities that lead to food insecurity, hunger, and poverty, we do know systemic changes like local food procurement practices are essential to moving fairness in the food system in the right direction. School food supplemented by healthy local food can and will build healthier children in Philadelphia, and other cities. More formal institutional purchasing policies that support local agriculture can and will stimulate our local economy and support our farmers. Good, fair food in schools is a good way to start.

Images: Fair Food

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This series continues next Monday.  In case you missed them:

Part 1: Working Together for a Stronger Food System
(Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission)

Part 2: Collaborating for Healthy Families
(Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger)

Part 3: A Food Co-op Does Much More Than Sell Food
(Weavers Way Co-op)

Part 4: The City of Locavore Love
(Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation)

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We need your help! The Dodge Foundation is overhauling its website, which we hope to unveil later this year.

Our goal is to design an innovative new site that is easy to navigate, provides a suite of useful resources tailored to your needs, and encourages you to participate regularly in online conversations, idea sharing, and collaborative projects. In order to accomplish this, however, we need your feedback about what features of a new website would be most useful and interesting to you.

We’ve set up a brief survey, which we hope you will take a few minutes to complete. The deadline is April 22.