Policy Solutions To The ‘Grocery Gap’

In 2001 the Food Trust, a nonprofit organization committed to ensuring access to affordable, nutritious food, focused attention on the lack of access to healthy foods in Philadelphia by creating food access maps and convening a task force. The campaign led to the creation of a statewide initiative that to date has funded seventy-eight fresh food outlets in Pennsylvania, increasing food access for 500,000 children and adults. This success has led to interest from other states and the federal government in expanding the initiative. Here we present the Food Trust's five-step framework for increasing access to fresh, healthy food in other locales.