Our Impact on Food Equity in 2021

While it has been a difficult year for under-resourced communities - particularly communities of color - we have witnessed what the generosity of our partners, supporters, and friends can do in partnership with those same communities.

Our 2021 Impact Report highlights some of the ways in which we are breaking down the barriers to food equity together.

Here are a few things we’ve accomplished together:

We’re partnering with 57 food banks in 27 states, reaching more than 14 million people

When we began our work with food banks in 2016 — our Healthy Hunger Relief program — we knew from experience that emergency food assistance was the first line of defense against hunger. We were also uniquely positioned to assist food banks in getting the bad food off their shelves and the good food in. We’re now working with 57 food banks across the nation, more than doubling our reach in the last year.

We’ve gotten 12 companies to commit to a new, higher standard for vegetables in the marketplace

During the critical early years, kids need access to real vegetables, and parents and caregivers need the techniques to introduce them in a way that encourages healthy, adventurous eating for a lifetime. That’s why PHA created Veggies Early & Often in 2021. We’ve not only briefed more than 16,000 people throughout 2021 on the positive, science based message from our research, but we’ve partnered with 12 companies to introduce a new standard for vegetable offerings in the baby and toddler marketplace using PHA’s Veggies Early & Often guidelines.

We’ve distributed 15 million servings of produce to families across the country

COVID-19 exposed gross inequities in the food system and highlighted that some families have affordable access to healthy, sustainable food while too many others don’t. That’s where we stepped in. What began in Denver, CO in May 2020 as the COVID-19 Fresh Food Fund has now grown to 26 cities as the Good Food for All program, providing 15 million servings of vegetables and fruits across the US.

We’ve helped families cook 888,000 meals with our meal kits

Launched in partnership with Michelle Obama, and the Netflix show Waffles + Mochi, Pass the Love is an innovative meal kit program that provides families with ingredients and recipes to prepare and enjoy delicious meals at home. Meal kits are designed to compete with fast food by being quick, easy and delicious. We set a goal of 1 million meals and so far we’ve distributed 888,000 meals to 18,000 families in four cities.

We are incredibly grateful to all of our partners, supporters, and friends who are dedicated to our work and who are on a journey with us as we make steady progress toward food equity.