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Ensuring that individuals and families have access to nutritious, high–quality food that promotes overall health and wellbeing.
In early 2022, Philabundance announced an exciting new initiative to demonstrate our passion for continually building up and refining the ways in which we support our neighbors facing food insecurity.
Philabundance’s Good Food Policy is a commitment to providing the communities we serve with the foods they want and deserve. It is our pledge to offer the flavors, tastes, and ingredients they know and love. It’s also a chance for us to emphasize healthy and nutritious foods that will help our communities thrive.
consists of offering food that adheres to four pillars:
Nutritious: providing all people, regardless of income, with access to the food necessary for an active, healthy life.
Culturally Responsive: offering connections to families, cultures, and communities through familiar and beloved foods.
Equitably Sourced: intentionally choosing to purchase food from businesses that reflect our values and represent a diverse blend of local, minority, and women-owned businesses.
Accessible: partnering with organizations that can help us ensure the right food reaches the right people at the right time.
When we introduced the Good Food Policy, we focused on the first pillar: Nutritious Food. In doing so, Philabundance transitioned to using the Healthy Eating Research (HER) Guidelines to measure the nutritional value of our food. These guidelines are supported by our partner and national hunger relief organization, Feeding America.
Additionally, we have made significant progress on the second pillar: Culturally Responsive Food. The COVID-19 pandemic forced Philabundance to think differently about how to carry out our work. Thanks to our generous donors, we were able to increase the amount of food we purchase directly at a time when food donations were minimal due to supply chain disruptions and high demand. This gave us more control over the product we could offer to our partners.
We surveyed our partners to identify the most-desired items by our community and used their input to help guide purchases and continue to seek feedback moving forward.
Historically, Philabundance evaluated success by measuring and tracking the number of pounds of food we distributed. We’ve come to realize that relying on this metric results in telling only a small portion of our story. Now, we’re putting a bigger emphasis on the quality of our food rather than just quantity.
We actively seek feedback from the individuals and families we serve, as well as our community partners, to continuously improve our food offerings and services. We value input regarding food preferences, dietary needs, and any concerns related to the quality or variety of the food we distribute. This feedback allows us to adapt our policies and practices to better meet the needs of our community.