Food-and-Farm Philanthropy Locally and Nationally: Ready to Take Bold Steps to Effect Big Change

Abstract

The story of People’s Grocery, a nonprofit group dedicated to bringing fresh food to the underserved neighborhood of West Oakland, California, mirrors the narrative of a growing national movement to create a healthier and more sustainable food system. People’s Grocery was one of many grassroots organizations to spring up in the last decade, starting urban gardens, opening farmers’ markets and educating people about healthy food choices. As those efforts were gaining footholds in communities around the country, broad issues of health, the environment and the economy as they relate to what Americans produce and eat bubbled to the surface of national consciousness and media attention.

Now, with the White House, the press, government agencies, foundations, politicians, community activists and regular folks everywhere watching, small-scale efforts like People’s Grocery are seizing the moment. For its part, People’s Grocery has spun off a for-profit business, with plans to open a full-service grocery store in 2011. The store and the nonprofit will work in tandem to accomplish a single mission: building a local food system that improves the health and economy of the West Oakland community. “We’ve grown a bit and we’ve learned a lot, and now it’s time to make a bigger impact,” says Brahm Ahmadi, founder of People’s Grocery who in January 2010 became CEO of the new People’s Community Market. “It’s not enough to just work around the edges.”

Such scaling up is to be the hallmark of the field’s maturation in the next few years, according to dozens of people close to food and farming work. And, they say, philanthropy has a critical role in moving those changes along.

A Regional Focus on Food Systems: A Special Report by the Food Funders Affinity Group in Partnership with the Delaware Valley Grantmakers

Food is not only what we eat, but it is also what enables us to learn, thrive and grow. Food system work is cross-disciplinary, covering areas such as health, environment, human services and education. Because of the diversity of issues related to the food system, this area is ripe for social innovation, out-of-the-box thinking, and change. The Food Funders Affinity Group was created in partnership with Delaware Valley Grantmakers to give funders a venue for learning from each other and from experts in the field, which is critically important because funders who come to the food system work from diverse disciplines and perspectives. This article follows the evolving field of food system funding.