Announcing Whole Cities 2024 Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant Partners

Whole Cities is awarding 10 community-directed organizations an average of $19,895 each to advance community health through the Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant. It’s a $198,950 investment in locally led initiatives that spans all five wards in Newark, New Jersey!

Whole Cities is on a mission to improve neighborhood health through collaborative partnerships, nutrition education, and broader access to fresh, healthy food. We understand that no one knows the barriers to individual and community health, the solutions that are most effective, or the support that is needed to implement these ideas better than those who live it every day. So, we champion locally led, locally supported, and often overlooked organizations that are spearheading homegrown solutions.

The Newark Fresh, Healthy Food Access Grant program started in 2017 to advance the city’s long-term healthy food access solutions and nutrition education. Since then, we have awarded more than $1 million to 34 locally led organizations throughout Newark’s five wards. We’ve also provided financial backing for additional opportunities shaped by the goals and requests of our grant partners.

Grantees are determined by the sustainability of their projects and their alignment with our mission. Previous grant partners have included community gardens, urban farms, farmers’ markets, mobile markets, healthy cooking classes, nutrition education programs, agriculture-skills development programs, and a SNAP incentive project.

Recently, we’ve also seen our community partners focus on additional programming to support residents’ health. Our Director of Programs Dianna Purcell explains, “From mobile farm stands to CSA boxes, our partners are meeting community members where they are and offering a variety of activities, such as free health screenings and cooking demonstrations, to build on their fresh, healthy food access work.”