Last January, Philabundance launched the Good Food Policy to announce its commitment to providing the people we serve with the diverse and nutritious food that they need. This policy is important because it represents our passion for nourishing our community in sustainable and healthy ways.
What is our Good Food Policy?
Philabundance’s Good Food Policy is a commitment to provide the communities we serve with the foods they want and deserve–the flavors, tastes, and ingredients they know and love—while emphasizing healthy and nutritious foods that will help our communities thrive.
Our Good Food Policy consists of offering food that adheres to four pillars:
- Nutritious: providing all people, regardless of income, 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 partners and donors who 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.
How is the work being done?
Our initial focus was on the first pillar of this policy: nutritious food. To do this, Philabundance transitioned to using the Healthy Eating Research (HER) Guidelines to measure the nutritional value of what we supply. These guidelines are supported by our partner and national hunger relief organization, Feeding America.
Additionally, we have dedicated a good deal of our work to the second pillar: culturally responsive food. The COVID-19 pandemic forced Philabundance to think differently about how we do our work. At a time when food donations were minimal, and thanks to our generous donors, we increased the amount of food we purchase directly. This gave us more control over the product we could offer to our partners.
We surveyed our partners to identify items most wanted by our community and over the past year, we have used their input to help guide purchases and will continue to seek feedback moving forward.
How is it different?
Historically, Philabundance evaluated success by measuring and tracking the number of pounds of food we distributed. We’ve come to realize that this metric tells only a small part of our story. Now, we’re putting a bigger emphasis on the quality of our food rather than just quantity.
An example of this is black tea, an item requested by those we serve. We previously would not have made it a priority because tea is light weight and adds little to the pounds of food metric. Now, however, we are focusing on providing this item to those requesting it.
We’re excited to further develop our Good Food Policy and are grateful to provide healthy and nutritious food for the people we serve.. As we learn more about hunger in our region and beyond, we remain fully committed to driving hunger from our communities.
You can contribute to this exciting work by donating today. Thank you for being a friend to Philabundance!
