Remarkable Year For 4P Foods and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Food System

4P Foods is entering its tenth year of rebuilding a regenerative and equitable regional food system.

WARRENTON, Va. (January  19, 2024) - 4P Foods is entering its tenth year of rebuilding a regenerative and equitable regional food system. Through partnerships and collaborations, 4P Foods is now a food aggregator that distributes responsibly-sourced food to residential customers, universities, restaurants, grocery stores, food banks, K-12 school cafeterias, and hospital partners with our food-as-medicine programs.

“From the local farmer and residents to food hubs and higher education institutions, 4P Foods has created an extensive food community working together in a new food system designed to reduce inequities in agriculture and food access,” says Tom McDougall, Founder & CEO of 4P Foods.

Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program

Through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA), 4P Foods delivered 143K pounds of locally sourced food to over 45K food insecure households during 2023.

In partnership with the Federation of Virginia Food Banks and Local Environmental Agriculture Project (LEAP), 4P Foods is using this program to build the connections and scaffolding of a new food system needed to address food insecure communities and expand local food systems.

“We know creative solutions are required to address intractable problems like food insecurity, which is growing quickly in Virginia as grocery prices continue to rise,” says Eddie Oliver, Executive Director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks. “Our partnership with 4P Foods will give a significant boost to our strategic priorities of sourcing more high-quality, nutritious food from local growers while positively impacting the health of the communities we serve.” 

The LFPA cooperative agreement directly funds the expansion of 4P Foods’ food procurement program in communities where independent farmers and food producers are located. The funding also provided 4P Foods with additional capacity to support disadvantaged farmers, create avenues for fresh food access in underserved communities, and strengthen partnerships between growers and food access organizations. The program prioritizes goods purchased from socially disadvantaged partners including farmers subject to racial or ethnic prejudice.  The LFPA cooperative agreement furthers 4P Foods’ mission and connects more people to nutrient-dense food grown by local farmers.

Introducing 4P Foods Chief Growth Officer: Christopher Gergen

In 2023, Christopher Gergen joined the 4P Foods team as the Chief Growth Officer. Christopher brings over 25 years experience building, scaling, and supporting systems-based solutions in communities globally. 

With a growing passion for the impact that planet-friendly food can have on our local economies, the health of families, and our warming climate, Christopher is thrilled to be working with 4P Foods to expand our collective impact.

“By transitioning from an industrial, extractive food economy to a more equitable, regional food system we have the opportunity to have a profound positive impact on local economies, our environment, and community-level health. Working with the 4P Foods team offers a unique opportunity to join this movement and contribute to an exciting growth path for 4P,”  says Christopher Gergen, 4P Foods Chief Growth Officer.

Through his firm Forward Impact, Christopher has worked with policy makers, philanthropists, investors, and innovators seeking to deploy blended capital into high-impact scalable solutions to address systemic economic inequities and is the co-founder and past CEO of Forward Cities – a national nonprofit that has worked with over 30 cities to strengthen their equitable entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Since launching in 2014, 4P Foods has connected 600 producers with residential customers, universities, restaurants, grocery stores, food banks, K-12 school cafeterias, and hospital partners with our food-as-medicine programs. Each day, 4P Foods gets closer to the kind of food system where farmers thrive, soil is regenerated, animals are treated humanely, and all communities have equitable access to healthy food.

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About 4P Foods

Since 2014, 4P Foods delivers responsibly-sourced food from independent farmers through its online grocery store, wholesale business operations, and institutional partnerships. 4P Foods is on a mission to rebuild a regenerative and equitable food system. Each day, 4P Foods gets closer to the kind of food system where farmers thrive, soil is regeneratively cared for, animals are treated humanely, and all communities have equitable access to healthy food. With a network of 600 regional farmsteads, 4P Foods helps make sustainably grown and ethically raised food accessible to several thousand universities, hospitals, school systems, food banks, restaurants, small groceries, corporate customers, and families  across Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C. Learn more about 4P Foods mission, impact, and work at 4PFoods.com.

About The Federation Virginia of Food Banks

The Federation of Virginia Food Banks supports the seven regional Virginia/Washington DC food banks in building partnerships, securing resources, sharing data and raising awareness of food insecurity throughout the Commonwealth. Working together as the largest hunger-relief network in the Commonwealth, Virginia’s seven regional food banks distributed 135 million pounds of food through nearly 1,000 agency partners in 2022. Collectively, they serve approximately 1 million people on an annual basis. For additional information, please visit vafoodbanks.org.

About Local Environmental Agricultural Project (LEAP)

Local Environmental Agriculture Project (LEAP) is a Roanoke-based 501c3 nonprofit. Founded in 2009, LEAP strives to nurture an equitable food and farming system that prioritizes health and abundance. LEAP programs include two farmers markets, a mobile market, an online marketplace, a farm share, a food hub, a commercial kitchen, three community gardens, and robust nutrition incentive programs. LEAP also works with community partners from across the region on initiatives that promote farm to community and food system development. LEAP is the lead organization for Virginia Fresh Match, a statewide network of markets and retail outlets that make fruits and vegetables more affordable for SNAP participants. Learn more about LEAP at leapforlocalfood.org.