Philadelphia, PA

Healthy food access, Built environment | 2026

Exploring access to healthy food to inform equitable investments and policy reform.

Philadelphia’s food security landscape is at a critical point: Food insecurity is deepening from rising costs of living, changes to public benefits, and growing strain on emergency food systems. Inequities in food access persist, reinforced not by individual behavior but by the design and functioning of public benefit programs, food distribution networks, zoning and land use policies, funding and procurement practices, and immigration enforcement. But the city’s food security services are seeing increased investments from public agencies and local foundations, which would benefit from data on assets and residents’ perspectives. Puentes de Salud, a social services provider, will collect and analyze data to assess how structural, social, and institutional factors shape healthy food access across Philadelphia, and how these factors differentially affect immigrant and low-income communities. 

This project will use a mixed-methods, community-centered design to generate data on healthy food access. The project will recruit members from community leadership structures to form a community advisory board for the project. Puentes de Salud will partner with community and food access organizations to survey residents, including both users and nonusers of food pantries and nutrition programs. The survey will assess food access patterns, affordability, transportation barriers, cultural relevance, benefit participation, and perceived institutional barriers. The project team will conduct participatory food asset mapping and discussion sessions to document resident experiences navigating food systems. They will use GIS to visualize community food assets, highlighting service gaps and inequities. The project team will also integrate analysis of neighborhood-level indicators, such as food retail access, poverty, demographic characteristics, benefit participation, and land use. As part of the team, researchers at Drexel University’s Urban Health Collaborative will support culturally responsive study design, facilitate meaningful engagement with immigrant communities, assist with data analysis, and help translate findings into actionable recommendations.  

Preliminary findings will be presented at the inaugural Food Access Collective convening, where residents and partners will assess findings and prioritize next steps. Across sectors, this project will produce shared data to guide how resources, services, and policies are designed and implemented. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health and the mayor’s Food Policy Advisory Council can use the findings to set priorities and refine citywide and neighborhood plans. Food distribution organizations, such as Share Food Program, Sharing Excess, and Philabundance, will use the findings to align services to community needs. The project will help shift Philadelphia’s approach to food insecurity from fragmented services toward coordinated, systems-level solutions that are data driven, equitable, and community informed.