Every order you place at Philly Foodworks fights food waste, decreases packaging, and reduces carbon emissions in our atmosphere!

Building a sustainable food system is central to our mission. It's not an afterthought or a fake marketing scheme. It's our core operating principle and essential to our business model. The more you buy from us, the more you fight climate change. Here are some of the ways:

Fighting Food Waste: At PFW, only 4% of the produce we buy is not sold! Everything unsold is donated or composted.

We plan our crops with our farmers so they do not overproduce for us. This decreases on-farm food waste before it even enters the food system,
Each week, any produce not fit for sale is composted or fed to the pigs at Winding Lane Farm, so it never goes into a landfill.
Any product that is still good to eat is donated to our network of 8 community partners.

Decrease Packaging:

Our wax boxes and cold sleeves can be returned and reused. We reuse approximately 40,000 wax boxes and 10,000 cold sleeves each year!
We use minimal packaging on our produce, and 99% of the packaging used is compostable at your home or with a local composting service.
We are working with our producers to build systems for more returnable containers. So far, you can return glass bottle milk, Fishtown pickle project pickle jars, and Funky Fresh Komboocha bottles. More to come!

Reduce Carbon:

Most farms we work with use regenerative agriculture, which relies on building soil health through compost and organic techniques rather than fertilizers. In addition to not using fossil fuel-based fertilizers, these farms return other farm outputs, like old produce plants and manure, to the soil, reducing carbon emissions.
Over 90% of everything we sell is from within 150 miles of Philadelphia! We have also built an aggregation network, so one truck will bring in products from over 20 farms, meaning that each farmer does not have to drive into the city.
Our distribution system focuses on delivering to certain neighborhoods on specific days of the week, so we are not driving excessively. We drive an average of 1 mile per delivery, compared to the average 6-mile round trip to the grocery store.

We take great pride in how we have built our business. This does not happen overnight. It takes care and consideration, thoughtful relationships with our customers, producers, and employees, and time. We believe all sustainable systems must be built over time. We are in this for the long haul, and we are all in this together. Thank you for supporting a more sustainable future.