By Wayne Williams, Program Manager, Community-Based Programming
In the United States, there are more than 1.5 million people behind bars, many of whom suffer from various diet-related diseases while incarcerated. Here in Philadelphia, 1 in 6 individuals have been incarcerated, which is the highest per-capita incarceration rate among the 10 largest cities in the nation, according to The Reentry Project. In 2019, to address this important health issue, The Food Trust began offering weekly nutrition education classes for justice-impacted individuals, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Department of Prisons’ Office of Sustainability, and at halfway houses and community-based programs.
In 2021, the program was scaled up to include free produce, grown at the prison orchard, and delivered to halfway houses and recovery houses where The Food Trust offers nutrition education programming. Now in its sixth year, the program is active in over 11 locations providing nutrition education, prison-grown fruits and vegetables for community settings, food safety certifications, and culinary skills training.
Now, thanks to The Food Trust’s new partnership with Philadelphia’s Office of Reentry Partnerships and their upcoming Neighborhood Resource Centers, we can offer nutrition education, ServSafe certification, and employment opportunity programming to even more justice-impacted individuals.
For more information about The Food Trust’s re-entry and recovery work, please visit our website.