Common Market is a regional food hub in Philadelphia, PA. Their mission is to strengthen regional farms by connecting farmers to over 150 public and private institutions. This profile includes project highlights and impacts.

CEI and Wholesome Wave collaborated on providing business development assistance and “patient capital” to Farm Fresh Rhode Island.  The financing deal allows Farm Fresh Rhode Island to nearly double its produce storage and significantly expand its Market Mobile and Veggie Box programs, which enable thousands of families to access local, fresh food from dozens of family farms across New England.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation New York City (LISC NYC) has launched a three-year pilot program to help low-income families in New York live longer and healthier by expanding access to healthy food in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Called Communities for Healthy Food NYC, the new program connects to broader LISC NYC efforts to revitalize struggling communities and improve overall quality of life. It focuses both on locating healthy food outlets in places without them and educating residents about nutrition, food preparation and overall health.

ChangeLab Solutions' fact sheet, Fruitful Collaboration, is written for anyone involved in the development or implementation of a healthy food retailer program. It describes the Specialty Crop Block Grant funding stream and how to tap into it. You can also download our background paper, "Can the Speciality Crop Block Grant Program Support Efforts to Bring Fruits and Vegetables into Small Food Retail Stores?" which describes the analysis that informed the fact sheet.

Growing Home is one of Chicago's larger urban farming projects, much of it located in Englewood, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. This article and photo essay discusses the idea that urban farms have less to do with providing healthy food and are more about a reclamation of sorts, taking ownership of a community and the daily lives of the people.

Greater prosperity in Bradford and the rest of Vermont will require better access to health care, food, workforce development and education.That was the conclusion of a local panel of experts, as well as many audience members who attended the first Campaign for Vermont (CFV) public forum. CFV is a statewide, independent and non-partisan “ideas campaign.” It now has more than 350 partners, and has published prosperity-minded position papers on energy, education, health care and employment.

In May of 2012, the USDA announced new grant funding through the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2012 to increase SNAP access at farmers markets. $4 million was appropriated for the purchase or rental of a wireless device and related SNAP fees for markets. The purpose of the funds is to increase the availability of  point-of-sale (POS) equipment in farmers markets not currently participating in SNAP. This fact sheet provides guidance on how to obtain the funds and clarifications regarding eligibility and process. 

It has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables. But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too. And there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among its children and adolescents.

While Mississippi is ripe with green scenery, the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi says a huge slice of the Mississippi Delta has too few grocery stores. This is also the case in some urban areas of Mississippi experts say this limits access to healthy foods.

This fact sheet, developed by ChangeLab Solutions, describes the many benefits of produce cart vending. Produce cart vendors can travel deep into neighborhoods most in need of fresh produce, do not require large capital investments to start operations, and can adjust their inventory quickly to fit the unique cultural demands of a community.