• • 1: Home
  • 2: E-Newsletter
  • 3: About the Coop
    • 3.1: Membership
    • 3.2: Join Now!
    • 3.3: Online Membership Application
    • 3.4: Our Mission
    • 3.5: History
    • 3.6: Staff
      • 3.6.1: Staff Emails
      • 3.6.2: Staff Spotlight
    • 3.7: What ARE Coops?
    • 3.8: Coop Board
    • 3.9: By-Laws
    • 3.10: Employment
      • 3.10.1: Application
  • 4: Contact Us
  • 5: Services
    • 5.1: Catering
    • 5.2: Special Orders
    • 5.3: Home Delivery
  • 6: The Store
    • 6.1: Hours & Location
    • 6.2: The Deli
    • 6.3: Prepared Foods
      • 6.3.1: Our Cook
      • 6.3.5: Our Chef/Fresh Foods Manager
    • 6.4: Meat/Poultry
      • 6.4.1: Meat Product List
    • 6.5: Seafood
      • 6.5.1: Sushi
    • 6.6: Cheese
    • 6.7: Dairy
      • 6.7.1: Dairy Product List
    • 6.8: Produce
      • 6.8.1: Produce List
    • 6.9: Groceries
      • 6.9.1: Grocery Products
      • 6.9.2: Frozen Products
    • 6.10: Bakery
      • 6.10.1: Product List
  • 7: Buy Local
    • 7.1: Local Farms
    • 7.2: Local Vendors
  • 8: Community
    • 8.1: Shared Recipes
    • 8.2: A Community Calendar
    • 8.4: Food BLOG
    • 8.5: Local News & Initiatives
      • 8.5.1: Article Archive
    • 8.6: Resources & Links
  • 9: Featured Products
    • 9.3: Gifts baskets

URBAN NUTRITION INITIATIVE

Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI) is a West Philadelphia-based non-profit that engages elementary and high-school students in an active, real-world problem-solving curriculum and strives to improve community nutrition and wellness. UNI programs fall into three categories: increasing food and nutrition knowledge; increasing the supply of healthful foods; and encouraging healthy lifestyles.

UNI transcends traditional models of nutrition education by engaging learners in hands-on efforts to improve their local food system while working to solve the systemic problems manifested in nutrition-related disease. UNI is based on the idea that teen participants must contribute in designing, operating and evaluating interventions. UNI combines hands-on nutrition education, community-problem solving, and research to foster long-term school and neighborhood partnerships.

UNI organizes school day, after school, and summer learning opportunities in 20 Philadelphia public schools, serving more than 10,000 students every month. Students internalize healthy eating habits as they work to share these messages with their peers and the broader community. UNI high school teen interns teach healthy cooking classes, grow fresh foods, and advocate for social change. Students work to improve lunchroom choices and operate after-school fruit stands. UNI operates a farm stand at two West Philadelphia community farmers' markets, Clark Park Farmers Market and Muhammad Park Farmers Market, from April to late November, with food grown by the teen participants at three West Philadelphia garden sites: University City High School, West Philadelphia High School, and William L. Sayre High School. This year was an exciting year, also, since Milk and Honey Market began buying and selling UNI-grown produce! In addition, UNI coordinates job-training and youth leadership programs for high school student participants.

UNI high school teen interns organized the Youth Action Council for the Philadelphia Urban Food and Fitness Alliance (PUFFA) and have participated in the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society City Harvest program since 1999. They have been highly involved in youth organizing and networking on a regional and national level and have attended conferences in California, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Arizona, and Tennessee. UNI has been cited by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as one of four promising models for improving health and nutrition amongst children in the United States, and in 2003 was winner of the W.T. Grant Youth Development Award by the National Academy of Science.

To learn more about the ground-breaking work being accomplished at Urban Nutrition Initiative, visit www.urbannutrition.org. If you would like to volunteer or make a donation to UNI, contact Danny Gerber, Director, at (215) 898-1600, or email dgerber@sas.upenn.edu.