Drink Up Comes to Philadelphia

Philadelphia Launches “Drink Up Philly” Initiative to Increase Water

Philadelphia launches the first citywide initiative as part of a far-reaching national effort to encourage people to drink more water every day.

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. (May 8, 2014) – Today, The Food Trust joined The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA), officials from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, Philadelphia Water Department and other partners to announce Drink Up Philly, an initiative to encourage Philadelphia residents to make a choice to improve their health and well-being: drink more water.

This is the first citywide roll-out of the national Drink Up effort led by PHA which has already engaged millions of people and brought together supporters from the public and private sector.

The initiative is designed to increase the availability and marketing of water in Philadelphia through The Food Trust’s network of corner stores, schools, farmers’ markets, and Night Market events, reaching more than half a million residents with the message that water is a healthy choice.

“As summer starts to heat up, the Drink Up Philly initiative will promote water as a healthy choice that we can all make every day. We want to thank the Partnership for a Healthier America for choosing Philadelphia to launch the first citywide Drink Up campaign, and we’re grateful to all the corner store operators, food truck vendors, youth leaders and community groups who will be helping us to spread the word about the importance of drinking water,” said Yael Lehmann, Executive Director of The Food Trust.

“Philadelphia is the perfect location for our first Drink Up citywide effort. We have already seen tremendous support from the community encouraging people to drink more water more often,” said PHA CEO Lawrence A. Soler. “We look forward to the great work that The Food Trust and local supports will do across Philly to spread the word that you are what you drink, and when you drink water, you drink up.”

The Food Trust and the Drink Up effort are joined by local supporters, who announced the following commitments as part of the local campaign:

• The Food Trust is proud to be a Drink Up Philly supporter. To increase marketing and consumption of water in Philadelphia, we pledge to promote water in more than 600 neighborhood corner stores, schools, farmers’ markets and Night Market Philadelphia events, reaching more than half a million residents with the message that water is a healthy choice that we can all make every day.
• The Philadelphia 76ers are proud to be a Drink Up Philly launch partner, helping to increase the consumption of water and raise awareness of its importance in
• Philadelphia. We pledge to provide suitable drinking water to children participating in all of the community programs we will conduct this summer in the region.
• The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is proud to be a Drink Up Philly launch partner. To increase marketing and consumption of water in Philadelphia, we pledge to increase access to tap water in school and afterschool settings and promote healthier beverage choices through healthy vending policies.
• The Philadelphia Water Department is proud to be a Drink Up Philly launch partner. To increase marketing and consumption of water in Philadelphia, we pledge to continue to provide high quality, cost-effective drinking water to the residents and businesses of Philadelphia, 24-hrs a day, 7 days a week and to encourage the consumption of our tap water through a variety of educational tools, such as social media, school outreach, distribution of promotional materials and programming at the Fairmount Waterworks Interpretive Center.

For more information on the national Drink Up effort, visit www.youarewhatyoudrink.org.


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About The Food Trust: The Food Trust, a nonprofit founded in 1992, strives to make healthy food available to all. Working with neighborhoods, schools, grocers, farmers and policymakers, The Food Trust has developed a comprehensive approach that combines nutrition education and greater availability of affordable, healthy food. Learn more at www.thefoodtrust.org.


About PHA: The Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) is devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation’s youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis. In 2010, PHA was created in conjunction with – but independent from – First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! effort. PHA is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is led by some of the nation’s most respected health and childhood obesity experts. PHA brings together public, private and nonprofit leaders to broker meaningful commitments and develop strategies to end childhood obesity. Most important, PHA ensures that commitments made are commitments kept by working with unbiased, third parties to monitor and publicly report on the progress our partners are making. For more information about PHA, please visit > www.aHealthierAmerica.org and follow PHA on Twitter @PHAnews.