One way to send a Valentine to the City of Brotherly Love – the poorest big city in the nation, and in the state with the fastest rising food costs – is by donating to a group that feeds local families and children in need.
Spiking local food costs are aggravating the financial crisis that disproportionately impacts communities of color and more than 350,000 Philadelphia residents every day – including 100,000 children, according to the Philadelphia Poverty Action Fund.
Grocery prices in Pennsylvania have risen at twice the rate of many others, topping out at a rate of 8.2% over the past year, according to a recent report from Consumer Affairs. New Jersey’s rate ranked fifth, at 6.8%.
The Sunday Love Project, a nonprofit that runs a free grocery store in Kensington, is trying to combat these statistics.
Sunday Love opened Greater Goods in 2022, allowing families and individuals to shop for free once a week. Greater Goods serves an average of 100 people a day who receive approximately $40 to $45 worth of groceries, paper goods, cleaning and personal hygiene products at a time, according to Sunday Love founder Margaux Murphy.
Funded by individual donations and other sources, such as community grants and awards, Greater Goods products enable families and individuals to make multiple fresh meals a week, Murphy said. Greater Goods offers produce and meat that may not be available at neighborhood bodegas or may be prohibitively expensive at other grocery stores.
“We don’t want to be an ordinary (food) pantry in which people visit us and rely on us for the rest of their lives,” said Leah Santos, the liver tumor coordinator for the Liver Transplant Team at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania, who sits on Sunday Love’s board. “We want people to use us as a bridge to eating healthier, as a bridge to their community, as a bridge to maybe finding employment.”
Santos, who is also a registered nurse, said food insecurity keeps people locked into poverty, since a diet high in saturated fat and sugar can lead to chronic diseases, such as diabetes, that in turn can lead to unemployment and financial strain.
“We always prioritize the dignity of the neighbors that we see,” Santos said. “They want to feel valued as well, and for some folks that isn’t standing in line for a free food resource” indefinitely – although Greater Goods may act as a safety net, sometimes helping people as they near the end of their monthly state benefits, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children.
“We really try to have stuff that is not covered by WIC and SNAP,” such as feminine products and diapers, Murphy said.
Volunteers such as Santos – who showed up with food and blankets at an emergency shelter Sunday Love had set up during a code blue in 2018 and “never left” – help staff Greater Goods and also may act as resources to neighbors, Santos said.
Greater Goods needs three volunteers each day. People can sign up on Sunday Love’s website.
The Sunday Love Project is in the final moments of its annual fundraising campaign. People who wish to help can donate directly to the nonprofit or purchase items for Greater Goods from its Amazon wish list. They also can buy tickets to the Feb. 27 Winkel Fundraiser for Sunday Love.