Monthly Updates: April 2026

April has been a month of momentum and milestones. As spring unfolds and we move closer to opening, we're grateful for the progress we're making—organizationally, in the community, and in partnerships that are helping us build something truly transformative. Thank you for being part of this journey with us. Read on to follow our progress and ways you can join our journey to make eating well easier for all <3

APRIL 2026 SNAPSHOTS

📍 WHYY Feature

📍 AbbVie Foundation Health Equity Accelerator

📍 Sharing Our Work: Community Talks and Policy Leadership

📍 Meet Our Chef de Cuisine: Samir Hernandez

📍 Construction Updates

📍 Honored on Jackie Robinson Night

📍 Published Research: Food and Nutrition Security Study

📍 Volunteer in the Kitchen

📍 Support Our Work: We Cannot Do This Without You

📍 Gratitude Corner

WHYY Feature: Our Story Goes Public

We're thrilled to share that WHYY featured The Community Grocer in a story about our innovative approach to food security and our upcoming opening. The article highlights our revolutionary model, showcases the meals we've been distributing weekly to neighbors in need, our partnerships with local health care providers, and the community voices who have been with us since the beginning—volunteers like Chef Jamila and Ms. Nikki, and partners like Vanessa Young from Power of Paint.

As Eli shared with WHYY: "This is the solution for food security in Philadelphia. Everyone is recognizing that the work our neighbors and we have been putting together is bigger than one store; it's about an entire system. Philly's doing it best, and Philly's doing it in the best way possible, and that's with community."

Read the full story: https://whyy.org/articles/community-grocer-west-philly-food-security/

AbbVie Foundation Health Equity Accelerator

Huge news! We're pleased to share that we've been selected as one of six organizations nationally by the AbbVie Foundation and MATTER to participate in the 2026 AbbVie Foundation Health Equity Accelerator.

Through this program, we'll continue advancing our work to expand access to care in communities, alongside this inspiring group of organizations: Black Heart Association, Grassroots Health, Health Justice Initiative, MedCycle Network, and SPEAK (a Supportive Place for Empowering Asian Americans and Kin).

Over the next 10 weeks, we'll learn from peers, mentors, and subject matter experts who can help us think bigger and move smarter.

We're building something new: a vision for nutrition access and Food as Medicine that starts with the community it serves. This accelerator gives us the connections and support to make the corner store a real foundation for health equity in Southwest Philadelphia.

Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eeQPQhbW

Sharing Our Work: Community Talks and Policy Leadership

This month, our team brought our mission to diverse audiences across the region. Alex led a class at Penn Nursing, sharing insights on nutrition and community health. Eli spoke to the Wharton Public Policy Club about the intersection of food access and policy innovation, and presented at the Upper Dublin Lutheran Church Community Summit in Ambler, discussing how communities can work together to address food insecurity.

We also continued our work on the Philadelphia Food and Nutrition Security Task Force, representing a coalition of food access providers and advocating for policies that strengthen our city's food system for everyone.

Meet Our Chef de Cuisine: Samir Hernandez

We're thrilled to introduce Samir Hernandez, our Chef de Cuisine! Samir brings exceptional culinary talent, a commitment to healthy cooking, experience as a chef instructor, and a passion for community empowerment to our team. He'll be leading our kitchen operations and finalizing our product offering. We're lucky to have him and can't wait for you to taste what he creates.

Construction Updates:

Construction progress is ongoing and we're getting closer every day! Although we are experiencing delays, our late summer/early fall launch is on the horizon, and the building is truly coming to life. From framing to finishes, every detail is taking shape with our community in mind. Stay tuned for more updates and thank you all for your patience as we overcome each hurdle to get to our opening day!

Honored on Jackie Robinson Night

We were deeply honored to be recognized at the Philadelphia Phillies game on Jackie Robinson Night as a Phillies Charities Recipient. Thank you to the Phillies organization for this meaningful recognition. To celebrate this recognition, we brought out 100 of our neighbors for a fun filled evening at Citizens Bank!

Published Research: Food and Nutrition Security Study

Exciting news from the research side of our work! We're getting published in the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition for our community research conducted in partnership with Penn Medicine.

Article: Food insecurity with and without nutrition security: An exploratory analysis of the co-occurrence of food and nutrition (in)security

Journal: Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition

DOI: 10.1080/19320248.2026.2661066

Once published online, the article will be available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2026.2661066

This research helps us better understand the nuanced challenges our community faces and strengthens the evidence base for Food as Medicine interventions. We're proud to contribute to the growing body of knowledge that will help communities nationwide.

Volunteer in the Kitchen

We need you in the kitchen! Join our team as we prepare nutritious meals for our neighbors. Whether you can give a few hours or become a regular volunteer, your time makes a real difference in feeding our community.

Sign up to volunteer here: https://calendly.com/tcggroceries/the-community-grocer-volunteer-opportunity

Support Our Work: We Cannot Do This Without You

From advocacy to meals, from construction to our workforce program and beyond—we need you.

Every dollar you contribute supports nutrition access, job training, community health resources, and a vision for a food-secure Philadelphia. We cannot do this work without the generosity of supporters like you.

Donate today and be part of building something extraordinary.

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

With grit and gratitude,

The Community Grocer Family

Alex, Eli, Joy, Issa, Sophie, and Samir!

Gratitude Corner

We’d like to share a little extra gratitude to the following folx for supporting our journey this last month:

• The Cosmopolitan Club’s Giving Circle for supporting our work through a $50,000 contribution to our community.

• The EcoLab Foundation for supporting our work through a $9,000 contribution.

• Josh Katz for capturing the joy of the Phillies Game with our community through photography.

• Our fellow panelists at the Dublin Lutheran Church Community Summit for your incredible work.

• The WSFS Team for their support through the NAP program and the M&T Bank Team for their support through the NPP program.

• All of you for reading this to the end, joining our journey, and being part of our community. Let’s build something special together <3