Pittsburgh outlines spending plan for $3M food justice fund

Teaira Collins says it’s difficult to find fresh food in her neighborhood.

As a mother, she said she wants to provide healthy food options for her family. But it’s not easy in the Hill District, where Collins lives.

That’s why a plan to invest $3 million to promote food justice throughout the city sounds encouraging.

“It means a lot to me because this will be a way to make access for us to be able to buy the things that we need,” she said. “Making this stuff accessible for everybody in neighborhoods where it’s needed is going to really count.”

A proposed spending plan for Pittsburgh’s $3 million food justice fund would allow city officials to begin putting the money to use.

During 2023 budget negotiations, City Council used $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to launch a food justice fund that officials and advocates said would help ensure people had access to fresh food across the city.

None of the money has been spent yet.

“The proposed plan prioritizes investments in grassroots community organizations and is designed to uplift the needs of each individual community,” said Stephen O’Brion, advocacy coordinator for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

More than a dozen local food advocates spoke in favor of the proposed spending plan during last week’s council meeting. They said it would provide money to support corner stores providing fresh food to underserved communities, expand urban farms and urban gardens, and allow small organizations to bolster their food justice efforts.

Denele Hughson, executive director at Grow Pittsburgh and a committee member for the food justice fund, said her organization received $65,000 in funding requests to support food-growing projects this spring alone.

The city’s new food justice fund “will make sure we have the funds to support all our community gardens,” she said, adding the city has at least 120 of them. “The need is clear.”

Emily Wiggins, of Manchester, participates in one of them. She said her work with the Food for Soul community garden has allowed her to collaborate with others in the community and realize “the importance of food sustainability and providing your own food.”

The spending plan calls for $1.5 million — or half of the total funding — to be spent on providing grants ranging from $2,000 to $75,000 apiece to smaller nonprofits that work on food justice efforts.

It also would budget $1.1 million for larger investments, including efforts to improve food access through urban agriculture, community markets and grocery stores, and other food businesses. Money also could be spent on increasing educational outreach and addressing food waste through composting and environmental efforts. Grants would range from $75,000 to $500,000 apiece.

The plan would budget $150,000 for the city to hire a third-party organization to manage that grant initiative.

The plan also budgets about $233,000 for city to hire a food justice coordinator for September through 2026.