The Common Market: Providing Sustainable Food Through Anchor Institutions

Working with “anchor institutions” like hospitals, senior care facilities, schools and universities, The Common Market aims to improve health and support local food producers through regional procurement. The organization is currently building vibrant regional food systems in the mid-Atlantic, Georgia and Texas, with plans to expand to other U.S. regions. The Common Market believes that agriculture can be restorative to the environment. By developing markets for food that is grown with integrity and respect, they can help transform growing practices and heal communities. They do this by connecting sustainable farms to anchor institutions through aggregation, building of infrastructure and technical assistance and support around often complicated or prohibitive technical industry standards for operations. And by building this procurement network, they are connecting sustainable food with vulnerable communities.

“We saw a huge opportunity to play a role, connecting the needs of small family farms with urban food insecure communities, really trying to bridge the needs, the best interests, the economic well being and the health of these communities through fair trade.” — Haile Johnson, co-founder of The Common Market

In addition to being an impact investment, The Common Market is a grantee of the Food and Agriculture program.