Announcing Our 2024 Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant Partners
We’re on a mission to improve neighborhood health through collaborative partnerships, nutrition education, and broader access to fresh, healthy food. We understand that no one knows the barriers to individual and community health, the solutions that are most effective, or the support that is needed to implement these ideas better than those who live it every day. So, we champion locally led, locally supported, and often overlooked organizations that are spearheading homegrown solutions.
We started the Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant program in 2017 to advance the city’s long-term healthy food access solutions and nutrition education. Since then, we have awarded more than $1 million to 34 locally led organizations throughout Newark’s five wards. We’ve also provided financial backing for additional opportunities shaped by the goals and requests of our grant partners.
Whole Cities is on a mission to improve individual and community health through collaborative partnerships, nutrition education, and broader access to nutritious food. We champion projects that nurture people’s power to grow food and expand the range of fresh produce available in their neighborhoods.
Through a community-led process, Whole Cities offers grants to nonprofits with food access projects like urban farms, mobile markets and community gardens which provide fresh, affordable produce close to home. Read on to learn more about our approach.
Congratulations to our 2023-2024 Community First Grant Partners!
We are awarding 64 Team Member-nominated, community-led organizations an average of $9,000 each to advance fresh food access and nutrition education through our annual Community First Grant. This commitment of over $575k is being invested in 49 cities in the U.S. and Canada!
Whole Foods Market Team Members are known for being dedicated to their communities, energized by community engagement and actively supporting local projects, so we tap into that excitement in our Community First Grant Program. These annual grants support partnerships between Team Members and local nonprofits with programs focusing on long-term fresh, healthy food access and community health. Read on to meet our 2023 Community First Grant partners and learn about their incredible work.
A Celebration of Urban Farmers
This year we celebrated National Farmer’s Day as a day to acknowledge the work, time, and efforts that go into feeding and nourishing a nation, and we want to take this opportunity to shine a spotlight on urban farmers — the problem solvers, innovators, and often unsung heroes in many underserved communities.
At Whole Cities, we see urban farming as one of the essential pathways forward, and urban farmers as agents of change. They are helping to reimagine community-driven solutions for building thriving, sustainable local food systems, growing neighborhood health, and creating more just and equitable communities. Read on to learn how urban farmers impact local communities beyond providing fresh, healthy food access.
Healthy Food for All Podcast
Hear from Whole Cities community partners to learn about healthy food access and find out what happens when everyone has a seat at the fresh, healthy food table.