Threshold Foundation

Teach life skills to the community through youth centered programs with a focus on sustainable agriculture Threshold Foundation is a community-based organization in Lancaster City that develops creative solutions to the health problems in our community that stem from a lack of access to and knowledge about healthy, fresh foods. Our vision is to build a local food system that improves the health and economy of the Lancaster community. Our goal is to change the way the food system works. We believe everyone should have access to healthy food, regardless of income. We call this "food justice" - the belief that healthy food is a human right. The food system is failing to provide elderly and low-income people with the healthy foods they need to thrive. It is also failing to create good jobs and support local food businesses in urban communities. So Threshold Foundation works toward creating a food system that centralize the needs of the elderly and urban poor by developing programs and enterprises that produce and distribute fresh foods, provide nutrition education, promote urban agriculture and create local jobs.

Threshold Foundation started in 1993 as a prevention intervention program teaching entrepreneurial and life skills to court referred youth. Over the last five years Threshold Foundation has attracted local and regional attention in our effort to transform the inner city food environment and address health problems in Lancaster City. We pursue unique approaches to community health and food security that contribute new ways of solving our community's needs. Our efforts to build more innovation into our approaches have provided us with first hand knowledge and in-depth understanding of how to provide healthy foods and nutrition education to inner city residents. We also take that knowledge into schools in addition to training city youth over the summer months to sell most of the fresh produce that they learn to grow organically. As the food system continues to decline our belief in new and bold solutions becomes stronger. This is the essence of how Threshold Foundation lives its mission in the community everyday.