Content area
Full Text
The Food Trust emphatically believes that everyone deserves good, nutritious food, and they are working hard to spread the word to the public.
Originally named the Farmers' Market Trust, it was renamed The Food Trust in January of this year. During the past decade, with the assistance of others, The Food Trust was able to:
Increase urban access to fresh food by conducting seasonal farmers' markets in neighborhoods throughout the region to serve more than 60,000 customers annually;
Promote improved nutrition by developing a comprehensive school nutrition policy within the Philadelphia School District, which was piloted in four schools and successful in removing sodas from vending machines and doubling the number of students eating school breakfasts.
Improve the eating habits of youth while teaching entrepreneurship and sustainable agriculture through our School Market Program which serves more than 17,000 students; and
Advocate for public policies that support local farming and the development of food retailing opportunities in urban areas by publishing "Food for Every Child: The Need for More Supermarkets in Philadelphia," a report detailing the health-related impact of supermarket shortages in Philadelphia's neighborhoods; and hosting the annual Future of Our Food and Farm Summit, attended by hundreds of hunger advocates, farmers, and food retailers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
"The organization got started out of the Reading Terminal Market," said Executive Director Duane Perry, who founded the organization along with a couple of other people who were at Reading Terminal Market at the time. "We actually began in response to understanding that many communities were underserved when it came to having enough food stores. There was a lack of places where people could find good, nutritious and affordable foods. We founded the organization to help respond to that problem to figure out how we could give people better access in certain communities, and how we could also provide people the information that they need to make healthy food choices.
"Diet-related disease has reached epidemic proportions in the Philadelphia region. The Food Trust is committed to improving people's health and eliminating malnutrition.
"Overall, there is a philosophy that we want to connect our urban and rural communities together. There is a need to have farmers [connected] with who is eating the food. We...