Everyone in Philadelphia deserves access to fresh, local produce. Two Health Department programs – Philly Loves Fresh and Local Produce Mini Grants – are working toward that goal.

Philly Loves Fresh

The Philly Loves Fresh campaign began in 2024 as a pilot program to raise awareness of the significant value provided by produce trucks in West and Southwest Philly. This campaign has since grown to support additional produce vendors across the city. Produce vendors play an important role in providing affordable and fresh fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods with limited access to produce. Many of these vendors have been rooted in their communities for generations. Many also host cooking demonstrations, donate excess produce, and even deliver produce to their customers.

Four new Philly Loves Fresh vendors were selected this year to receive $2,500 grants, promotional materials, and year-round technical assistance.

• Piece of Fruit is a mobile smoothie and fruit cart that provides produce to multiple communities. Piece of Fruit will use grant funds to increase capacity and purchase materials necessary for community produce drop-offs.
• Vinny’s Produce, which operated for over 40 years at 10^th and Dickinson Streets, has a new location at 19th Street and West Oregon Avenue. Vinny’s Produce will use funding to remodel the produce truck and increase produce supply to serve more customers.
• Capriotti Brothers is three-generation business selling 100% produce all year round. Capriotti Brothers is most looking forward to the Philly Loves Fresh media campaign and increasing awareness about their presence.
• West Phillie Produce has been a globally recognized community model for over 20 years. West Phillie Produce looks to duplicate its efforts and expand to a second location at 48^th Street and Woodland Avenue.

In partnership with media firm Mighty Engine, the Department of Public Health will promote grantees through social media, radio, TV, newspaper and Indego advertisements. All of the grantees this year are already established in their communities, and Philly Loves Fresh is excited to partner with them to expand their operations and to reach more community members.

Find your nearest produce truck at foodfitphilly.org/phillylovesfresh/.

Local Produce Mini Grants

Local Produce Mini Grants support farmers and farmers’ market or farm stand operators who promote access to fresh produce, local agriculture, and food justice, especially in underserved communities. Farmers and farmers’ markets play a vital role in bringing fresh local produce to neighborhoods. They connect communities to local and rural agriculture; provide access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and other locally-grown products; and support the local and regional farming economy.

Last year, the Local Produce Mini Grant began supporting farmers’ markets and stands located in low-income communities of color with high rates of food insecurity and limited access to healthy food. The 2026 grant recipients will receive $2,000 to support a wide variety of projects, from purchasing weather resilience equipment to paying for machines that accept SNAP benefits.

These 14 farms and markets will receive grants:

• Strawberry Mansion Farmers Market will use the funds to cover overhead costs, such as stipends for local teens working at the market, to ensure that produce is affordable and accessible to the local community.
• At Hunting Park Community Garden, mini-grant funds will 1) support the construction of an African Keyhole Garden that will honor ancestral African agricultural knowledge while addressing Hunting Park’s rising heat indexes, and 2) launch a residential compost collection program.
• Philly Goat Project’s mini grant funding will allow them to increase the hands-on guidance and training their participants receive and increase the yield of their harvest as they expand from one garden workday a week in the spring to three days in the summer and fall.
• At Life Do Grow Farm, mini-grant funds will expand mobile market operations, reaching residents who may have difficulty traveling to the farm stand in person.
• Farm 51 will use their funds to build a new mobile farm stand on site at their farm; this will help protect their produce from the weather after a harvest, ensuring it stays fresher longer.
• The La Placita Farm Stand at 4th & Lehigh will provide stipends to local farmers who attend to ensure the market continues to be a source of fresh local produce.
• Norris Square Neighborhood Project will produce on-site bilingual signage and bilingual promotional materials so that community members can access the local produce distributed at their farm stand.
• Sanctuary Farm Phila will purchase more seeds and growing materials to meet expanding needs in their local North Philadelphia community and a growing number of farmstand guests.
• Get Fresh Daily’s Black Farmers Markets will expand their nutrition curriculum on food justice, health disparities and other key nutrition issues.
• Dirtbaby Farm will purchase new equipment to accept SNAP/EBT payments, ensuring local produce remains affordable and accessible.
• Methodist Services’ Heritage Farm will purchase weather resilience equipment to help keep their farm operational and serving the community in wind, rain and heat.
• One Art Community Center Farm will expand its growing site and purchase new seeds, soil, compost and essential equipment to grow a wider variety and greater volume of fruits, vegetables and medicinal herbs.
• Guerin Rec Center Farmers Market is a brand-new weekly farmers market. Funds will support a community outreach campaign to inform the neighborhood about the market.
• The Food Trust will operate a series of pop-up markets across Northeast Philadelphia, bringing local produce access to multiple locations during market season.

Find your local farmers’ market at phila.gov/farmers-markets/.

Philly Loves Fresh and the Local Produce Mini Grants are part of a Health Department goal that provides everyone in Philadelphia with access to fresh, affordable produce, no matter where in the city you live.