At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to fresh food was disrupted as global supply chains broke down, many institutions that provided meals closed, and traditional grocery shopping became unsafe. In Pennsylvania, a group of organizations and businesses came together to develop a tool to help increase dependable access to local food, strengthen farms in the region, and improve our ability to respond to future emergencies.
Funded by a grant from the US Economic Development Administration, the Foodshed Mapping Project is an ongoing, collaborative effort led by Pasa Sustainable Agriculture in partnership with Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and PA Preferred, Feeding Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, and the Pennsylvania Farm to School Network along with many other organizations and business partners throughout the state.
Each of these partners holds a piece of the foodshed puzzle. Now they’re joining forces to put the pieces together—by connecting their data, testing out technology, and mapping more key players in the Pennsylvania food system—in order to begin to address common issues around food access, farmer needs, and emergency response.
By mapping Pennsylvania farms and food businesses in a shared, searchable digital database, the Foodshed Mapping Project aims to facilitate new opportunities for connections with markets, institutions, wholesalers, and consumers to support a thriving and resilient food system in the Commonwealth.
