Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative

Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative is a grant from the City of Philadelphia Department of Public Health that funds community-driven projects to advance food justice and increase access to healthy food in Philadelphia. The initiative supports organizations working on food security, nutrition equity, and community health through the Health and Human Services Food Fund and national HFFI program.

Eligible applicants are nonprofit organizations located in Philadelphia. Awards range from $18,450 to $50,000 to support transformative, targeted food access projects.

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About the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative Philadelphia has tremendous food assets and opportunities for individual and collective action. We know that food justice is health justice. The Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative (PFJI) empowers communities to exercise their right to grow, sell and eat healthy food.

PFJI is a partnership of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (CDIP) and Reinvestment Fund. Historically, the food system has displaced, enslaved, and undervalued the labor, land rights, and self-determination of Black and Brown individuals, women, immigrants, and indigenous people.

In Philadelphia today, low income communities and communities of color still have fewer fresh food choices. PFJI supports community-driven solutions in areas where access to healthier food is needed the most. PFJI is informed by health justice, the collective movement to heal society and remove barriers that prevent individual and community well-being.

Philadelphia has tremendous food assets and opportunities for individual and collective action. PFJI strengthens these assets by providing funding for innovative, community-led projects that work to further food justice. PFJI prioritizes projects led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, immigrants and people living with disabilities, and those with lived experience with health injustice.

PFJI supports projects that offer fair compensation to staff and partners. The 2024-2025 round of the Philadelphia Food Justice Initiative (PFJI) awarded $549,463 in grants to 14 local Philadelphia organizations to create a more just food system. Project grants awarded in this round ranged from $18,450-$50,000 and will support projects with essential personnel, supplies, equipment, and contractual costs.

In total, the Initiative has provided nearly $2. 4 million in grants to nearly 40 grantees since its launch in 2019. Read the full award announcement press release here .

2024-2025 PFJI Awardees include: Tending Our Gardens: Nourishing Spaces and Community-Driven Solutions for Black Mothers and Caretakers Crossroads Women’s Center Giftbaby Postpartum Meals Program Strawberry Mansion Community Food Systems Seeding Freedom at Freedom Greens and Gardens Growing Together: Empowering Communities Through Home Gardens Karen Community Association of Philadelphia Karen Refugees Food Access Program Neighborhood Land Power Project Food Sovereignty and Land Justice: Building Community Power in Haddington Norris Square Neighborhood Project Empowering Youth & Community: Cultivating Food Justice and Preserving Puerto Rican Heritage Seeds to Sprouts- Growing Minds, Growing Food Diasporic Plant Connections for Food Justice From the Heart Cobbs Creek Community Garden Workers Revolutionary Collective Community Supported Supply Chain PFJI funding supports individuals, businesses, or organizations doing community-led work that contributes to an equitable and sustainable local food system in Philadelphia.

Applicants must be located in the City of Philadelphia and can be 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.

Since its launch in 2019, the initiative has awarded nearly $2 million in grants to advance community-driven solutions to historic food injustice. To date, 41 organizations have been awarded PFJI grants. Thirty-seven are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) owned or led and 28 are owned or led by women.

Grant awards have ranged from $4,000 to $100,000. To learn more about PFJI prior grant recipients, view the following reports: PFJI Impact Report 2019-2020 PFJI Impact Report 2019-2024 2024 PFJI Informational Session Recording 2024 PFJI Informational Session Slides About Health Justice: Food Fit Philly You can email phillyfoodjustice@reinvestment. com for any inquiries.