October 2026: Building a Resilient Food System

A resilient food system starts with local partners who grow together.

Our Co-founder and President Eli Moraru joined The Philadelphia Inquirer At the Table: Food Access panel at Thomas Jefferson University, alongside Christa Barfield, founder and CEO of FarmerJawn Agriculture, and Je'Nai Righter, EdD, Assistant Provost for Student Affairs at Thomas Jefferson University.

FarmerJawn is our main farm supplier, and the conversation centered on what we're building together: a food system rooted in local resilience and community pride. It connects agriculture, food, health, and education in ways that keep families and communities nourished for the long term. We discussed the need to move beyond band-aid solutions to hunger and instead focus on intentionally building resilient systems from soil to supper.

Thank you to M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust for making the conversation possible and an amazing surprise donation to The Community Grocer, to Kate Dailey for moderating, to Thomas Jefferson University for hosting, and our very own Joy Parham-Thomas for feeding us.

We're proud to keep building this work in West Philadelphia as we prepare to open our flagship location at 60th & Walton and show the country what a resilient food system can look like.

Read on to see how you can join this journey :)

September 2026 SNAPSHOTS

📍 At the Table: A Conversation About Food Access in Philadelphia

📍 Ava’s Farm Partnership

📍 TCG Takeover in NYC

📍 Construction Updates: Save the Date!

📍 We Need Your Help

📍 Carversville Farm Foundation Appreciation

📍 Our TCG Family Has Grown :)

📍 Photo Highlights

After meeting Austin Wright, founder of Ava’s Farms, while co-hosting a panel at NKCDC earlier this summer, we knew that we had to find a way to work together. Less than a month later, we teamed up to serve 7 women's abuse shelters with over 2,000 pounds of fresh produce all across the city of Philadelphia.

If you see Austin driving around in the Green Machine, make sure to give him a friendly wave as we strive to make eating well easier for all!

TCG Takeover in NYC

Our team made three trips up to the Big Apple with Eli (President) attending the Alliance to End Hunger’s regional convening to collaborate on national and regional policies to end hunger, Alex (CEO) joining NationSwell for a dinner about future proofing our food systems, with Joy (Apprenticeship Program Director) and Issa (General Manager) participating in the Future of Food Education event at Climate Week.

Want to hear more about the culmination of these conversations? Join Eli at Johnny Brendas on Oct 21st, 2026 at Ignite Philly 2026: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/ignitephilly/ignite-philly-26#/

Can’t make it? Don’t worry — read on to save the date for a few important events coming up :)

Save the Date/Construction Updates - Last week we passed our fire suppression inspection and are in the process of completing our interiors with a fresh coat of paint and new flooring. We are almost ready to welcome you all to 60th Street to celebrate the end of construction and the start of a new chapter!

Please Save the Date for November 15th, 2026 for a ribbon cutting, mural dedication, and thanksgiving event to celebrate this major milestone. More details to come.

Pictured above: Greg Goldman’s “How to Build a Nonprofit” class from Penn joining our team for a hard hat tour to study our journey earlier this month.

Support Our Work: We Cannot Do This Without You

In Mid July, a series of microstorms hit West Philadelphia; damaging power lines, causing floods, and knocking down trees. Our construction site was hit hard by the extreme weather conditions with water and wind damage requiring remediation, a full roof replacement, new security gates, and the repairing of our epoxy in our basement and kitchen.

Today, we are announcing a $100,000 capital campaign from now until the end of the year to help us open our doors and serve our community with nutritious food, workforce development opportunities, and programming to build stronger, healthier communities. Thanks to support from M&T Bank, we are already 10% of the way there. But we need YOU to help us get to the finish line.

Donate today and be part of building something extraordinary.

Carversville Farm Foundation Appreciation - When the SNAP crisis hit, our team stepped up to serve over 2,000 neighbors weekly with hot meals from our commissary kitchen, sustained by a city grant. But that funding wouldn't have stretched far without a new partner showing up for us. Tony, Steve, and the Carversville Farm Foundation team heard what we were doing and jumped in with regenerative, organic produce, poultry, and beef. What was meant to be a 4-week emergency response became a year-long program, supporting both pre-apprentices and neighbors alike. This September, we finally traveled out to the farm to thank them in person—celebrating not just the partnership, but the food systems both of us believe in.

Our TCG Family Has Grown - This month we are welcoming 6 new team members to The Community Grocer.

• Kahiem Love-Miller, Assistant Kitchen Manager

• Nidearah “Chef Ni” Robertson, Assistant Kitchen Manager

• Shakur Wells, Assistant Kitchen Manager

• Evonya Taylor, Part-Time Assistant General Manager

• Rick Durricks, Shift Lead

• Paloma Sharangpani, Social Work Intern

“I began my culinary career with the mindset of making a change and being able to make a difference… This next chapter I am able to do what I love as well as make a difference in the community and I believe with with this opportunity we can make the change together.”

• Shakur Wells, TCG’s newest AKM

Pictured (from left to right):

• Joy Parham, our Apprenticeship Program Director serving up some delicious dishes at the Inquirer Food Access Panel.

• Ari, one of our pre-apprentices, proudly holding up a beef sample as the team finalizes our product offering.

• New team members and supporters standing outside of 60th Street on a sunny day.

• Randy, one of our earliest board members and the team :)

Let’s build a vision together for a stronger, healthier tomorrow.

With grit and gratitude,

Alex, Eli, Issa, Joy, Samir, Sophie, Kahiem, Nidearah, Shakur, Rick, Evonya, Paloma, & more coming soon!

The Community Grocer Family