Addressing the Food Desert Issue in Aliquippa

Penn State Extension has established itself as a partner to address various issues in Aliquippa and continues to develop relationships within the community. This has resulted in the creation of the Aliquippa Food Council, which has representation from various community partners, residents, non-profit organizations, and local businesses.

"Maria Graziani, Program Area Leader, Business Growth and Development, brings a tremendous background in grant writing, urban farming, and connecting local farmers to the community. While I network, identify, and recruit members for the Food Council and work with the chair of the council to move it forward, Maria provides technical expertise to assist in the development of a plan to increase access to fresh foods throughout the Aliquippa communities", says Mary Alice Gettings, Extension Educator Food, Families, and Health, Food, Families, and Health, in Beaver County.

Together, Maria and Maria Alice are pursuing grants to establish a mobile market. Residents of Aliquippa, who serve on the Food Council also suggested Penn State Extension start cooking classes, with older residents teaching younger residents. They believe it is important for residents to know how to prepare what will be available through the mobile market, and they want to focus on healthy soul food. Applying Extension's background in community education, leveraging partner agencies represented on the council, and utilizing resident's cooking knowledge, fun and creative cooking classes will be developed.

From the perspective of RWJF and 4-H National, WCC is a long term (10 year) effort that involves changing the way Extension views partnerships. The project demands Extension teams work collaboratively as a system. Rather than delivering a program or a curriculum, Extension Educators are asked to develop their approaches holistically, with the community and not for the community. National program leadership places a strong emphasis on the policy systems and environmental change efforts of WCC.

Penn State Extension chose Aliquippa as one of our WCC communities due to the economic strife the community has experienced resulting in job loss and food insecurity. According to Laura Rubino, Vice President of the Beaver County Corporation for Economic Development and advisor to the Aliquippa Economic Development Corporation (AEDC), "The City of Aliquippa is fortunate to have a partnership with the Extension, specifically, Mary Alice Gettings and Maria Graziani, to address the lack of access to fresh foods by more than half of the population in the city". 

"The work of Extension, and the subsequent formation of the Aliquippa Food Council, parallels the work and goals of the national Local Foods, Local Places technical assistance award to AEDC to conduct community workshops under the direction of experts from U.S. EPA, U.S D.A., and the Northern Border Regional Commission. An Aliquippa Food Summit, in August 2019, resulted in a plan to address food shortage and food access issues in the city and neighborhoods of Aliquippa. Ms. Gettings and Ms. Graziani participated in the workshop tackling the goal of increased outlets for fresh food access in downtown and across neighborhoods by offering expertise in the action items and serving as the lead to undertake these action items with the community and Aliquippa Food Council."

Penn State Extension was recently awarded funding from RWJF, the nation's largest philanthropy dedicated solely to health, to allow for expanding our staff capacity in each of our three Well Connected Communities. In partnership with National 4-H Council, we are working together with community leaders to empower volunteer leaders to help their neighbors embrace healthy choices at every stage of life.

During the COVID-19 epidemic Penn State has continued to connect with Aliquippa by supplying the community with critical information about emergency food locations, grant opportunities, promoting online learning for youth and adults, and providing starter plants for the Spring Street Garden. Members of the Food Council continue to meet virtually and move forward with plans to pursue the mobile market and develop a cooking school curriculum.  We also plan to establish an Aliquippa Youth Food Council so we can hear from the voice of youth in how to address the issues their families face.

Well-Connected Communities (WCC), a collaboration between 4-H National and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), aims to support coalition building in Aliquippa (Beaver County), Lebanon (Lebanon County), and Norris Square (Philadelphia County) in order to help set a direction for positive change around health challenges in each community. These challenges are defined using county health and census track data and conversations with community members and local leaders.