About ImpactPHL Perspectives:

ImpactPHL Perspectives is a multi-part content series that explores the many facets of the impact economy in Greater Philadelphia from the perspectives of its doers, movers, shakers, and agents of change. Each volume is written directly by a leader in this space to discuss best practices and share lessons learned while challenging our assumptions about financial and impact returns. For more thought leadership like this, check out the full catalog of ImpactPHL Perspectives.

Molly Riordan, Director of Institutional Impact for The Center of Food Purchasing and Co-founder of Philly Cooks for Philly

The phrase “institutional food” rarely conjures a pleasant feeling. Whether it was during a recent hospital stay, conjuring long-ago memories of the school cafeteria, or hearing one’s own children recount the offerings at lunch, institutional food is largely panned as an unappealing last resort.

At Philly Cooks for Philly, we see institutional food as a massive economic, health, and equity opportunity, with delicious results for eaters and our city’s future.

Roughly a quarter of Philadelphia’s over 200,000 students are food insecure, meaning the meals they eat at school or during free summer programs may be the most well-rounded and nutritious they eat all day. In total, the three largest providers of free meals to Philadelphia’s youth—the School District, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia’s Department of Parks and Recreation—serve roughly 39 million meals each year. 

Surprisingly, nearly 40% of the School District’s meals—over 10 million annually—are made out-of-state by a single vendor. In 2022, when the Big Three Philadelphia meal providers’ single vendor, Preferred Meals, went out of business, there was no backup plan. A different New York State-based company stepped in, at great cost to the Big Three. Beyond the logistics and associated food miles, the strategy of working with a single for-profit third-party meal provider limits local control and leaves on the table an important economic opportunity.

Schools and summer programs are eligible to participate in federal programs that reimburse institutions for the cost of preparing and serving those meals. According to the most recent estimate, roughly $35 million in federal funding is received by the Big Three meal providers and paid directly to one single for meals that go to schools and other facilities that lack full-service kitchens. That means every year, Philadelphia gives away a $35 million infusion of money that could otherwise employ local residents and support local suppliers.

“… we see institutional food as a massive economic, health, and equity opportunity … a 75,000-square-foot central commissary kitchen in a transit-accessible Philadelphia location. The facility will be capable of producing up to 20 million meals per year, employing a 400+ person staff …”

Economic Opportunity

Philly Cooks for Philly is founded to bring together the expertise and resources to catalyze the economic impact of federal dollars. To achieve that, we are creating a vision for a centralized meal production facility in Philadelphia that pairs with a workforce development program and values-based food-sourcing practices to build a resilient regional food system that feeds Philadelphia’s future.

Central to our vision is the construction and staffing of a 75,000-square-foot central commissary kitchen in a transit-accessible Philadelphia location. The facility will be capable of producing up to 20 million meals per year, employing a 400+ person staff of cooks, delivery drivers, warehouse technicians, dietitians, logistics and administrative coordinators, and managers, hired directly from the neighborhood and city at large

Working with local workforce partners, Philly Cooks for Philly will provide workplace skills training transferrable to other parts of the food sector and other fields. We are also partnered with current operators of centralized kitchens that utilize scratch cooking techniques to build a modern, efficient meal production system that makes the best use of our regional fresh food.

Thanks to the generous support of Philadelphia Works, the Leo and Peggy Pierce Foundation, and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, Philly Cooks for Philly partnered with MFR Consultants to determine the potential economic impact of our vision. MFR estimates that, in addition to the jobs operating the facility, it would produce over $127 million in annual economic output and $1.26 million in annual wage and tax revenue, plus 260 construction jobs. An economic generator that produces high-quality nutritious meals for Philadelphia’s youth is truly a no-brainer.

“… the economic impact of our vision … would produce over $127 million in annual economic output and $1.26 million in annual wage and tax revenue, plus 260 construction jobs. An economic generator that produces high-quality nutritious meals for Philadelphia’s youth is truly a no-brainer.”

Many Cooks, Big Kitchen

While new in Philadelphia, the central commissary is tested and successful in cities across the U.S. School districts from Springfield, MA to Oakland, CA have built centralized meal production facilities that include nutrition education space, school gardens, and more. 

Hometown efforts to support meal production and workforce development include Philabundance Community Kitchen, where a 16-week culinary vocational training program is paired with meal production and commercial food processing in support of the city’s residents and food entrepreneurs, respectively. 

What makes Philly Cooks for Philly different is the combination of workforce skills training with scale. The maximum reimbursement a school can get for a child eligible for free lunch is around $4.50 in 2024. That reimbursement must cover the cost of food, supplies, labor, transportation, and more. That’s why Philly Cooks for Philly must be big: to afford to buy good ingredients, support living wages, and offer robust workforce training programs, it must harness efficiencies of scaled production

Equity Impact

At the heart of our effort is reducing the stigma associated with institutional meals so that more people—be they students experiencing food insecurity, or hospital patients, or those experiencing homelessness or incarceration—can get the nutrition they need to do well in school and in life. When I worked at the City of Philadelphia, our biggest obstacle to getting more youth to participate in summer meal programs was the pervasive idea that those meals are “welfare food.” Stigma plus poor quality (meals are sometimes delivered partially frozen or otherwise spoiled) undermines hard-working public servants’ best efforts to feed students in need.

Not only can our vision offer students higher quality meals, but it can also employ their adult family members. We will employ workers at family-sustaining wages, directly addressing one of the primary social determinants of health: income and economic mobility.

Gaining Ground

Over the past three years, we have socialized our vision with civic and institutional leaders from many sectors and consulted with the School District of Philadelphia Food Services, the true experts in feeding kids. We have convened partners, developed a robust advisory board, and determined our facility needs. We welcome more people to pull up a chair to our ever-expanding table of experts and champions. The time to harness this opportunity is now. We just can’t wait to cook for Philly.

Molly Riordan leverages markets to influence and change the course of food purchasing, food production, and our collective climate future. Currently, the Co-founder of Philly Cooks for Philly and the Director of Institutional Impact for The Center of Food Purchasing, Molly is a leading systems planner focused on regional solutions for economic equity and climate change mitigation. As she has managed projects locally and nationally, her work across sectors helps arrive at solutions that meet human, ecological, and economic needs. Previously, Molly led policy efforts on Healthy Food In Health Care across the East Coast,  regional planning for Urban Farms with Cornell University, and managed Good Food purchasing and supply chain with the City of Philadelphia.