About The Common Market
Local Produce for your Community
The Common Market is a nonprofit regional food distributor with a mission to connect communities with local produce and goods from sustainable family farms. We strive to improve food security, farm viability, and community and ecological health.
Currently operating in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Texas, and soon Great Lakes regions, The Common Market is expanding to other U.S. regions to build a nation of vibrant regional food systems. Choose a location to become a customer, producer or to learn more about our local initiatives.
Our History
As a young married couple, Haile Johnston and Tatiana Garcia-Granados moved to Philadelphia’s historic Strawberry Mansion neighborhood in 2003. At the time Haile and Tatiana settled in, families of means had moved out. While the culture remained, the lives of everyday people were impacted by blight, vacancy and poverty.
Working as part of a neighborhood community development organization, they engaged young people in projects to beautify the neighborhood’s vacant lots – cleaning up, planting flowers and growing vegetables.
A field trip with their team led to an a-ha moment that changed their futures.
“By chance we stumbled upon a big agricultural auction about an hour away in a rural area,” Tatiana remembers. “And while we were there, we realized it’s not just communities like ours that are disconnected from healthy food. There are all these small family farmers who don’t have access to markets – they’re at the mercy of this auction system.”
Recognizing the disconnect between these two communities was the starting point for The Common Market – bringing local produce from small farms to communities like theirs.
In 2008, they formally started their nonprofit, a food distributor that would transcend the word vendor, working to support and develop sustainable family farms while providing food access to vulnerable communities through the institutions that served them.
-story excerpt by Kari Carlson for W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2020 report
As of 2021, The Common Market has distributed close to $70 million of local foods from over 300 sustainable family farms and producers to 1,800+ schools, hospitals, eldercare facilities, workplaces and community organizations. We estimate over 58 million meals have been served that include these healthier food options.
Our Theory of Change
