The Food Trust's three-fold agenda of increasing access to affordable, nutritions food, improving health through better nutrition, and sustaining the environment by supporting local farms has guided the organization's programs for 15 years. Since 1992, The Food Trust has worked to prevent sprawl, promote the efficient use of our region's natural resources, and improve healthy eating by connecting neighborhoods to the nutritious food grown right here in southeastern Pennsylvania. Beginning with one farmers' market at Tasker Homes, The Trust's farmers' market program now includes 20 markets, which provide an important revenue stream for the area's fanners. The Food Trust also co-chairs The Fanners' Market Alliance, which is a coalition advocating for the interests of family farms hi Pennsylvania. The combination of on-the-ground implementation and policy advocacy allows The Food Trust to make a bigger impact on the sustainability of our region than either tactic alone. The Farmers' Market Development Act, a bill for which The Food Trust advocated, now allows communities across the state to apply for start-up funding to open similar farmers' markets.
The Food Trust's work has expanded to include supermarket development, which keeps downtowns thriving, thus preventing sprawl. By incentivizing supermarket development in existing commercial corridors, we reduce the need for cars, and encourage development in existing infrastructure. Furthermore, supermarkets improve public health by increasing the availability of nutritious food in communities and aiding economic development through job creation. The jobs brought into communities through supermarkets keep downtowns alive and reduce the pressure to push out into ever expanding suburbs. The strengthening of downtown communities relieves some of the sprawl pressure hi the rapidly growing region, which helps preserve farmland and reinforces the efforts of the farmers' market program.
Through an innovative partnership with The Reinvestment Fund and The Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, The Food Trust administers an $80 million financing initiative (the Fresh Food Financing Initiative) that provides capital financing for supermarkets in underserved communities. In 2006, the initiative received the EPA's National Award for Smart Growth Achievement and has been recognized by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government as one of the "top 50" government innovations in 2005. Most recently, The Food Trust has been working with the Reinvestment Fund and the William Penn Foundation to employ principles of green building, further melding the goals of sustainable development and healthy eating.
Education supports The Food Trust's efforts to promote sustainability. The 50,000+ students we reach every year not only develop healthier eating habits, but also become more conscious about the concept of sustainability when making food choices. Programs such as The Food Trust's Kindergarten Initiative incorporate local farms and agriculture into nutrition education. Part of the program includes healthy snacks for children produced from local fruits and vegetables. Not only are children learning the importance of healthy food, but the program also offers farmers yet another market to keep their businesses profitable. The Kindergarten Initiative has been so successful that the Commonwealth used it as a model for "Healthy Farms, Healthy Schools," a new legislative initiative that allows schools to apply for grants to implement a comprehensive nutrition education program that incorporates local agriculture.
The Food Trust's work promotes the efficient use of the region's natural resources. Southeastern Pennsylvania has some of the nation's richest farmland. The Food Trust's farmers' markets, Kindergarten Initiative, and policy work promote the region's fertile farmland by introducing new customers to Pennsylvania's harvest, and opening new revenue streams for fanners. Not only does a local food system save natural resources by using fewer fossil fuels for transportation, but a thriving farm economy also reduces suburban sprawl, which promotes a car culture that uses an abundance of fossil fuels. Furthermore, the presence of small farmers' markets in numerous neighborhoods reduces citizens' need to travel in order to procure groceries. While The Food Trust's core focus is on food, our work has far-reaching benefits for land use and energy consumption.
The Food Trust has successfully connected health hi a clinical sense to environmental health and Smart Growth. Farmers' markets have a positive impact on agriculture in the region as well as public health through incorporating more fruits and vegetables into people's diets, but they go one step further by promoting communities where individuals walk and frequent commercial corridors. Similarly, The Food Trust's supermarket work not only improves diet, but also strengthens existing commercial corridors, which reduces the need for cars (shopping in downtown neighborhoods, as opposed to driving out to the suburbs) and prevents sprawl by investing in existing infrastructure, thus reducing the appeal of new strip malls. The Food Trust is taking the health/sustainability connection one step further with a pilot green supermarket program that will not only take an existing store and improve its ability to carry fresh fruits and vegetables, but help the owners convert to more green methods in the process, thus representing a harmonious marriage of community health promotion and environmental sustainability.
The Food Trust's "pilot to policy" approach has also furthered the efforts of sustainability. The Food Trust's Kindergarten Initiative began as a grant-funded pilot program in four Philadelphia schools. By advocating for legislation that supports similar work statewide, and using a successful pilot as a replicable model, The Food Trust was able inform the process that led to the passage of the "Healthy Farms, Healthy Schools" Act. Running demonstration projects at the same time that we advocate for policy changes makes these programs ripe for replication. Policymakers have a concrete model to look towards, while we describe the possibilities of a larger program. The Fresh Food Financing Initiative is another example of this. Other states have looked into recreating the Fresh Food Financing Initiative because of its simplicity and effectiveness.
The Food Trust has used thorough evaluation as one of the key methods for promoting and improving on our work. The Food Trust's farmers' market program has demonstrated results for improving diet and building investment in communities. More than half (55%) of surveyed customers reported increasing their consumption of fruits and vegetables since coming to market, and one out of four farmers' market customers reported shopping at other places in their neighborhood besides the farmers' market, emphasizing the potential for farmers' markets to have a multiplier effect on communities. By tracking sales at our farmers' markets, The Food Trust can make a strong case for farmers' markets as an important source of revenue for farmers. The Food Trust's farmers' markets have grown considerably over the last 3 seasons. Revenues for fanners have increased from $945,000 in 2004 to $1,534,000 in 2006. We estimate that with the continued expansion of market opportunities through the Headhouse Square market and our First Industries grant, revenues will reach $2 million by 2008.
The Fresh Food Financing Initiative has committed resources to 22 supermarket/grocery store projects across Pennsylvania, representing 1,133,595 square feet of food retail space and 2,552 jobs that have been created or retained. As part of The Food Trust's ongoing effort to provide research to support our work, we have partnered with Pennsylvania State University to conduct a National Institutes of Environmental Health- funded research project to assess how the opening of a supermarket affects residents' intake of fruits and vegetables. The pre-intervention survey is currently being administered.
The Food Trust's nutrition education programs successfully prepare students to make better decisions for their own health as well as act as stewards of our region's natural resources. Students participating in The Food Trust's comprehensive school nutrition policy initiative demonstrated a 33% reduction in the incidence and prevalence of overweight compared to control schools. Students in The Food Trust's School Market Program reported a 50% increase in fruit and vegetable consumption after participating in the program. And students participating in The Food Trust's Kindergarten Initiative showed a dramatic increase in knowledge of the source of their food. After the year-long intervention, 88% of students in intervention schools could identify farms as the source of their food, compared to 33% before the intervention. In control schools, the percent of students who could identify farms as the source of their food barely changed.
Through the entry point of healthy eating, The Food Trust is improving health through better access to nutritious food and sustaining the environment by supporting a thriving, regional food system. Our work benefits public health as well as the health of the natural environment. It is our comprehensive approach to sustainability, which cuts across many of our programs that we ask to be considered for a Greater Philadelphia Sustainability Award.
