Know Your Farmer: Addressing the Heart of Food Insecurity in Kensington

A stall in an outdoor market with bins of organic vegetables including radishes, snap peas, and green onions. — Image credit: Aaron Cloward on Unsplash

Cities across the United States continue to deal with the lasting impacts of food apartheid, an intentional system of violence perpetrated through disparities in food access. Food apartheid also underscores how other structural injustices, such as redlining and over-policing, have limited the access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food.

Kensington, a neighborhood in North Philadelphia is a prime example of food apartheid. But one Philadelphia farmer, Christa Barfield, owner of the community farm and greenhouse FarmerJawn, is looking to combat this issue directly with a new farm-to-corner storefront called CornerJawn, aimed at improving the health outcomes and social fabric of the Kensington community.

“Localizing the food system is how you get to the heart of nutrition security, and that starts with knowing who your farmer is.”

Barfield began dreaming up CornerJawn after a trip to Martinique in 2018, where she stayed in an Airbnb owned by Black Martinican farmers. Barfield was inspired by them to better understand the origins of food and its actors in her community: “Where are the farms, and where are people getting their food and why?” In her own neighborhood, corner-stores owners were hesitant to sell fresh produce because they were afraid it would not sell. That is when Barfield began to conceptualize a corner store that would offer “food as medicine” to the community.

The Need for Nourishing Food

While there are many places to buy food in Kensington, Barfield points out that there’s a lack of nutritional security. From 2021 to 2024, food insecurity in the Philadelphia area jumped from 13.6 percent to 21.2 percent. Statewide, one in seven Pennsylvania residents used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2024.

“Yes, you can find a mini mart that is selling some kind of nourishment, but is it really nourishing? That’s the true conversation here,” said Barfield in an interview with NPQ. “Localizing the food system is how you get to the heart of nutrition security, and that starts with knowing who your farmer is.”

FarmerJawn, Barfield’s 128-acre farm, can supply fresh produce two to three times a week as is needed for the corner storefront, which will be open every day and employ Kensington area residents. Meant to be both a learning and a community space, CornerJawn sits on a 2,500-square-foot courtyard, enough space to grow seasonal fruits and vegetables. The courtyard will also host community events, workshops, and health screenings.

Statewide, one in seven Pennsylvania residents used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2024.

“The whole concept is to ensure that people understand where their food is coming from,” said Barfield. The storefront will have a pay-as-you-wish model to make sure that everyone feels welcome, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Additionally, CornerJawn is working with community partners such as St. Francis Inn, a Catholic Franciscan soup kitchen and social service center that serves Kensington’s unhoused population. The shelter will help CornerJawn identify potential employees to join the storefront’s team.

Barfield also wants to tap into some of FarmerJawn’s existing partnerships with local food banks, sports teams, and potentially the City of Philadelphia to further collaborate on programming. “We want to activate it as much as possible,” she said.

Designing for Equity

Kia Witherspoon, the project manager of CornerJawn, is the president and cofounder of Determined by Design, an interior design firm centered on design equity. “We are adamant that design is not a luxury for a few, but a standard for all,” Witherspoon told NPQ. For Witherspoon, design equity focuses on the stories, historical narratives, and reference points that bring the people and humanity to the forefront.

The design concept for the new store was a direct reflection of the Lenape people, on whose land CornerJawn stands. The goal was to honor their history as well as other historical threads, such as Philadelphia’s textile factories and the Market–Frankford train line (Frankford El) that debuted in 1922 and connected West Philadelphia with the rest of the city.

The design of CornerJawn pops with color, a backdrop to the food and fresh produce that will be offered at this community space. “Using vibrant colors and textiles, our materiality has these beautiful yellows, plays on various shades of oranges and these deep emerald greens,” said Witherspoon. “We design for people, not their demographics…and then that translates to vibrancy, joy, color and play.”

Joy, especially, is what Witherspoon tries to bring to disenfranchised communities. “So much of the resources focus on what they don’t have and not on what they need, which is beauty, softness, health, and wellness,” she noted.

Witherspoon sees CornerJawn becoming a model because it is about bringing everyone back to the land and having the land meet people where they are. The common narrative in urban areas is that fresh food isn’t available. A project like CornerJawn shows that agriculture and farming can happen in an urban context—all you need to do is make space for it.

The design of CornerJawn pops with color, a backdrop to the food and fresh produce that will be offered at this community space….Joy, especially, is what Witherspoon tries to bring to disenfranchised communities.

Originally, FarmerJawn started out as a five-acre farm. When it eventually expanded to its 123-acre property, Barfield kept the original property and turned it into a training farm and education center. She wanted to get away from the common farming business model of having food packed and shipped to faraway states and countries. All of FarmerJawn’s produce stays within Pennsylvania, with various methods of distribution including Community Supported Agriculture or CSA boxes, farmers’ markets, pop-up events, and—soon—CornerJawn.

Serving the Community

Another of CornerJawn’s neighbors is Cantina La Martina, a restaurant owned by James Beard–nominated Chef Dionicio Jiménez and his wife Mariangeli Alicea Saez. They believe that CornerJawn will be a positive addition to the Kensington community, as they too see the need for better access to healthy food, nutrition education, and more job opportunities.

“There is an ill perception that eating healthy is expensive and not possible for people in this community,” Jiménez and Saez said in an interview, adding “Kensington needs more business pilots like this in the hands of people that look like us.”

As business owners, Jiménez and Saez have advocated sustainable solutions to improve the quality of life for the people living and working in the neighborhood. For example, 80 percent of their employees call Kensington home.

According to Jiménez and Saez, “Life in Kensington is as real as its challenges, but there is so much hope and hard work moving this community forward.” They have regularly seen their neighbors leave to get advanced degrees and other professional experience—and still decide to come back to Kensington to live, serve, and work in the community.

They see CornerJawn as another catalyst in that effort, another thread in the unique fabric of the neighborhood’s future.