Our Mission:
At Martha’s Community Farm, food, love, community, and sustainability are at the heart of everything we do. As a ministry of Catholic Charities of Philadelphia, Martha’s Community Farm lives out this mission by growing nutritious foods that address the evolving and diverse needs of our Marketplace friends and neighbors, while extending love, respect, and dignity to all the individuals and families we host and serve.
Rooted in the Catholic belief that every person is created in the image and likeness of God, the Community Farm is a welcoming venue for connection between people across all kinds of backgrounds. Our relational model organically invites a shared commitment to addressing some of today’s biggest challenges, because we believe access to nourishing food, meaningful relationships, and participation in community life are essential to human dignity and the common good.
Along with our many volunteers and partners, we are learning how to grow food together for a more sustainable local food system and ecosystem. Through our Community Farm and Marketplace, we bring neighbors together to grow, share, and distribute food in ways that build trust, inspire connection, and reflect our shared responsibility as one human family in responding to hunger, isolation, and environmental challenges. Martha’s empowers the local community to guide crop selection, cultivation, and distribution to pantry guests, using best practices that maximize community benefit. By listening to community voices and stewarding the land, we promote a sustainable local food system that serves both people and the ecosystem today and for generations to come.
Our Driving Forces
Culturally Relevant Food
The guests served at Martha’s Choice Marketplace come from a wide range of cultures and nationalities. For example, over 40% of the guests served at our food pantry are Hispanic. Martha’s places importance on the relationship of food to culture and identity. The Farm focuses on growing culturally relevant foods such as hot peppers, tomatillos and cilantro that are not typically available at food pantries. Martha’s continually surveys to understand which kinds of produce are preferred and more familiar to traditional diets. We like to supply produce that guests can be excited about!
Sustainability and Stewardship
Martha’s Community Farm operates at a critical intersection of food system and environmental sustainability. Our stewardship approach to farming values the interconnectedness of the food system, climate, ecosystems, animals and insects. In our role as food producers, we act as environmental stewards for the land and watershed.
As a regenerative farm, Martha’s practices no till farming and cover cropping to promote soil health. The Farm planted and maintains a riparian buffer food forest. This restoration planting reduces erosion runoff and pollution of the watershed while producing food for the pantry. Sheet mulching, used here and across the Farm, ensures the avoidance of pre-emergent chemical weed control. Marthas does not use any pesticides or herbicides. Native flowering plants are used as part of an Integrated Pest Management. Several native pollinator gardens have been installed to support local native insect populations.
Growing Care
Where caring for the land and each other meet.
Sustainably strengthening the local food system and ecosystem involves caring for both the land we grow on and the people we grow food for. Martha’s Community Farm is a hub for connection, community and care. The Farm’s partners, volunteers, and donors create a place of experiences where they and others can feel seen and cared about. This creates sustainable, long-term involvement and aims to make the community we live in a bit better for everyone.
Food Insecurity in our Community
