idealist.org

The Food Project's mission is to create a thoughtful
and productive community of youth and adults
from diverse backgrounds who work together to
build a sustainable food systems. Our community
produces healthy food for residents of the city and
surburbs, provides youth leadership opportunities,
and inspires and supports others to create change
in their own communities.

Vision Statement: To create personal and social
change through sustainable agriculture.

The Food Project is a launching pad for new ideas
about youth and adults partnering to create social
change, making environmental issues relevant to
teens in the inner-city through urban agriculture,
and using food production and distribution in
metropolitan areas as a way to not only bridge race
and class but also ensure food security for all.

Each year teens from the city and suburbs join with
thousands of volunteers to grow and distribute over
200,000 pounds of fresh produce to shelters, soup
kitchens, farmers’ markets in a low-income
neighborhood, and a Community Supported
Agriculture program. Throughout the year,
teenagers take on a substantial amount of
responsibility growing and distributing organic
produce, learning about sustainable agriculture,
local food systems, food security, community
building, public speaking, and most of all,
themselves. Food Project teens also create food
products, like our Farm Fresh Salsa, and take part
in our catering business, thus learning about food
enterprise and culinary arts. Each year The Food
Project shares its innovative model with an
increasing number of communities around the
nation through conferences, manuals, and
trainings. To further deepen our impact, we have
recently launched a national network to support
peer organizations and prepare young people to
take leadership roles in creating the future of our
food systems.