Kensington native blends business models to bring fresh food to neighbors in need

Austin Wright grew up in Kensington as the son of a businesswoman. His mother owned a daycare center and several other businesses in the neighborhood. As a child, he would walk from his home near G Street and Allegheny Avenue and could buy anything he needed without leaving the neighborhood.

As an adult, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in food safety and quality assurance, and he worked for large food corporations like Campbell’s and Perdue. Wright has lived all over the country, but building his own business close to his childhood home was always his dream. So, he created Ava’s Farm on the corner of Front and York streets.

It isn’t a farm in the traditional sense – Wright’s not growing anything there. Instead, he buys produce from the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market and receives produce from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Commodity Supplemental Food Program, Small Things Inc. and Sharing Excess. With that food, he creates sandwiches and other products to give to residents and community members free of charge.

“The idea of the store was for me to be able to come back to my neighborhood and have something that would represent my journey in the [food industry] and my education,” he said. “This is my representation of what I want to give back to my community.”

Named after Wright’s oldest daughter, Ava’s Farm officially opened in 2018. Wright supports the business’s operations through the nonprofit Feed Philly Now, which he founded the same year. 

According to Wright, the two entities work in tandem to subsidize free meals, such as sandwiches and a drink, while using the private business to attract corporations to pay for his food safety consultation. For Wright, the store is a representation of what he can do for the food industry, while offering a service.

“What I do is use [Ava’s Farm] to give food and distribute it back to my community as that representation. And so, I created [Feed Philly Now] to fund that initiative,” he said. 

Over seven years, Wright has expanded his services to 14 Ava’s Farm food distribution sites across Philadelphia and four in Chester, Pennsylvania. Six of those sites are located in Kensington, including the main storefront. 

Ava’s Farm also hosts programming for youth in the central location. Kids are invited to come in after school or during the summer to watch TV, play games and engage in other themed activities. 

Heather McBride, store manager and site director, said that she also prints out math worksheets and helps them with homework during the school year. She has also hosted Christmas and Halloween-themed activities in the store.

“I try to make it fun [for them],” McBride said. “I love to make a difference and to see that they're not in the streets.”

Before she started working at Ava’s Farm in 2023, McBride would walk two blocks down from her home with her family to get free food from the store. Having transitioned from utilizing the store’s services to now having worked there  for two years, she shared that she feels a sense of pride in being able to give back.

“I come here every day to make sure everyone's eating,” she said. “Even if it's something little, or even if I bring my own little things, [like water ice] for the kids. It's really a pleasure.”

When McBride was a child, Kensington Avenue was full of stores and places for residents to shop for all of their needs locally, she said. According to a 2019 report from Food Fit Philly, neighborhoods with the lowest median income have 28% fewer high-produce supply stores per capita compared to places with the highest median income, and 46% more low-produce supply stores. With a shortage of high-value produce markets in the neighborhood, she believes the store helps to fulfill that need. 

Wright says most of the word-of-mouth support for Ava’s farm comes from community members who tell other people and organizations.

“The customer who comes in here and gets stuff for free tells their social worker, the administrator at their homeless shelter, or the advocate that's working with them on their child abuse situation,” he said. “And what happens is [some of] these entities need the other side of what I do. The consultant side includes procurement, distribution, and product development.”

Wright believes that supporting community-based businesses such as Ava’s Farm could be a step toward improving the neighborhood. 

“The support for a farm comes from the community,” he said. “When you support community-based businesses, you're not gonna have people lying in front of vacant buildings. You're not gonna have a lot of these empty buildings. Every building should have something in it.”

By Oct. 1, Wright plans to expand the Ava’s Farm brand to two new store locations in the neighborhood. Recently, he’s also been able to equip all of the distribution sites with refrigeration, including public pools. With those upgrades, Ava’s Farm can now provide higher-quality snacks, like fruit or guacamole.

Wright looks forward to leaving Ava’s Farm to his children, continuing the tradition of community-based business ownership in his family. 

“When you can raise your children into seeing something selfless as their business, as their responsibility to the community, that is what makes me proud,” he said. “They're supposed to be the people that believe in the neighborhood enough that they will create socially conscious businesses that just don't exploit the people, but improve their lives.”

Have any questions, comments, or concerns about this story? Send an email to editors@kensingtonvoice.com. Or call/text the editors desk line at ‪(215) 385-3115‬.