Thank you to all who have been helping Food Moxie continue to provide access to healthy food for our students and families in emergency housing. As I write this in mid-May, Food Moxie has purchased, packed and distributed over $10,000 in local produce and eggs. Our distributions are mainly going to those we have been working with through our programming, including Martin Luther King, and W.B. Saul High School student families and the Stenton Family Manor shelter kitchen.

Over 10,000 pounds of produce has been distributed through a series of actions from many different sectors. We want to give them all a shout out, as we continue to serve in this way for as long as it’s necessary and possible.

Funders

• Some of our existing funders have allowed us the flexibility to repurpose existing grant funds, including GreenTree Community Health Foundation, the Leo & Peggy Pierce Family Foundation, and Seybert Foundation.
• In addition, we have received emergency COVID-19 funding from existing and new funders so that we can purchase food — something we don’t normally do in our current quantities. They include Albertson’s Nourishing Traditions Fund, Green Tree Community Health Foundation, Kistler-Tiffany Foundation, Triskeles Foundation, and the PHL COVID-19 Fund.
• As always, we have incredible individual donors who continue to support our work, including many Co-op members who have become repeat sustaining donors. Their generosity allows our staff to focus our energy on these pivoted work activities.

Teachers, Principals and Shelter Staff

• Saul High teachers and administrators called all their students in March and surveyed their community food security needs so that we could target our efforts to those families who needed food.
• Stenton Family Manor social workers, kitchen staff, security, and entry staff.
• Martin Luther King High life skills teachers and administrators got in touch with student families and are supporting ongoing, twice-weekly grab-and-go lunches for the 19138 community.

Volunteers

• William Penn Charter School students and teachers, who normally provide Food Moxie with community service hours, have been packing boxes for student families at home and then delivering them to Food Moxie staff to redistribute. These boxes have included pasta and sauce, canned proteins, and other household staples. They also included letters of encouragement and hope as well as seed packets.
• Ruth Bennett Community Farm youth and adult staff members have provided a safe space and support with packing produce boxes for distribution.

Produce Distributors and Food Hubs

• Weavers Way Co-op staff, especially Mt. Airy Store Manager Rick Spalek, helped with a produce delivery to Stenton Family Manor kitchen.
• Philly Foodworks has been delivering boxes of produce to Saul High families in need.
• The FruitGuys have helped us get local fruit to Stenton Family Manor.

And where would we be without the people growing the produce and raising the chickens for the food we have distributed to families?

Thank you local farmers, including:

• Alderfer’s Poultry Farm, Telford
• Eagle Road Farm, Quarryville
• Frecon Farms, Boyertown
• Fifer Orchards, Wyoming, DE
• Food Moxie growing spaces (Brandon and Dorene)
• Gehman Family Farm, Telford
• Honey Brook Harvest Collective, Pennington, NJ
• Mother Earth Organics, Maple Glen
• Radicle Farm, New York City
• Red Hill Farm, Aston
• South Mountain Creamery, Middletown, MD
• Sunny Harvest Farms, Glen Mills
• Schoharie Valley Farms, Schoharie, NY
• Weaver’s Orchard, Morgantown
• Weavers Way Farms, East Germantown and Roxborough

As we continue to pivot our work to address immediate food needs, Food Moxie staff have planted all our growing spaces with nutrient-dense greens; we will start adding them to our produce distributions soon. We are already planning some vegetable and fruit plant distributions to student families interested in growing their own produce, and we may host a plant distribution to volunteers interested in growing food for donation.

If you would like to donate to these activities with your time, talent or treasure, check for updates on our website at www.foodmoxie.org or our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts. You’re also welcome to visit our new YouTube channel, which offers cooking and gardening tips from our staff.