Our Mission
The Good Food Foundation exists to celebrate, connect, empower and leverage the passionate and engaged, yet often overlooked, players in the food system who are driving towards tasty, authentic and responsible food in order to humanize and reform our American food culture.
Our Work
Food crafters and independent merchants are confronting a complex and rapidly changing landscape. Industry consolidation and the unprecedented growth of online retail continue to change the way businesses evolve and the way consumers shop. The simple truth is that good food is about people—connecting, respecting, supporting and enjoying each other. Simultaneously, since the Good Food Awards launched in 2010, the 20 largest food corporations have lost $18 billion of market share to smaller, values-focused makers – a testament to the power of, and dare we say appetite for, good food. Our work to humanize the food system has flourished and a vibrant community of over 1,500 Good Food producers and over 500 retailers has coalesced to feed an increasing hunger for responsibly-made food.
In addition to the Foundation’s core programs – Good Food Awards, Good Food Mercantiles, and Membership – short-term programs and projects have been launched from time to time to continue forward momentum. These efforts have included:
- The Good Food Fund (2018) which was used to pilot innovative programs uniting crafters and merchants.
- A BIPOC-led Equity Task Force (2020 – 2024) which built a four-year Equity Action Plan informed by a survey of 145 Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color-identifying food crafters. Dozens of BIPOC crafters benefited from funding allowing them to fully participate in the Good Food community.
- Good Food Originals (2015 – 2020), a line of experimental new products that were made available exclusively at member stores of the Good Food Merchants Alliance during an initial six-month period.
- Merchant Summits, annual gatherings to discuss common challenges, from the rise of online retailing to strengthening culture and magnifying impact.
- Coordinated Marketing to streamline and amplify messaging about the values of good food by lending our social media resources to Crafters and Merchants for takeovers to share their stories.
Our Impact
As of 2023...- 6,000 entries from 50 states since the Good Food Awards began
- 623 companies benefitting from a Good Food Award
- 700 articles and counting highlighting Good Food Award Winners
- 200,000,000 impressions annually
- $12,000,000 more purchased annually from sustainable farms due to the sales impact on Winners
- 250 companies have shown at a Good Food Mercantile
- 1,800 retailers, journalists and chefs have attended a Good Food Mercantile
- Articles in Newsweek, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, Saveur, Food52, Civil Eats, Martha Stewart Living, Washington Post and more
Our History
In 2008, Sarah Weiner and Dominic Phillips worked together to produce Slow Food Nation, bringing together 85,000 people to celebrate good, clean and fair food at North America’s largest ever sustainable food event. Inspired to continue the conversation, community, and collaborations it seeded, Weiner and Phillips founded Seedlings Projects in 2010 as a not for profit ‘do tank’ for the food movement, transforming ideas into action. Seedlings Projects launched two flagship programs in its first year, one on each coast.
Farm to Desk in Washington, D.C., was the first integrated garden, classroom and cafeteria program in a public school in our capital city, with food topics woven into core subject curriculum. The concepts and lessons were shared widely to other schools all around the city and spurred similar programs which continue to flourish.
The Good Food Awards launched with an annual event in San Francisco and quickly grew to include some 2,000 entries from all fifty states. As the Good Food Awards continued to grow, so did the community of hundreds of stellar good food crafters, farmers and grocers. The Foundation created new programs to further support these often overlooked players in the food system including the the Good Food Guild (2012), Good Food Merchants Alliance (2015), Good Food Mercantile (2015) and more.
In 2016, Seedling Projects officially changed its name to the Good Food Foundation to better align with its core programs honoring, celebrating and empowering the often underserved players in the food system.