Back-to-school season is here, and Philly Homegrown™’s visitphilly.com/food is packed with ideas for parents committed to filling their children’s lunchboxes with fresh, healthy and locally sourced meals and snacks. This simple task not only benefits school kids’ health, it also benefits the local economy and the growers who work within the area’s 100-mile foodshed—from Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties to Amish Country to the Atlantic Ocean.
On visitphilly.com/food, the new and constantly growing microsite on the Philadelphia region’s official tourism Web site, visitors can score seasonal recipes; see what’s in season; meet the faces behind some of Philly’s best local foods; find markets, restaurants and farms in the region; and much more.
- Seasonal Recipes: Parents looking for healthy breakfast, lunch or after-school snack options will find loads of ideas in this section of the site. And after hitting up their local farm or farmers’ market, they’ll have just the right ingredients to make whole wheat zucchini bread, peanut butter and jam bar cookies and many other hard-to-resist treats.
- Now in Season: Learn what fruits and vegetables are ripe this month. For example, visitors to the site will learn that late summer and early fall are the prime seasons for squash, peaches and mushrooms.
- Meet the Makers: Meet the people leading Philadelphia’s local food movement, from farmers to vintners to restaurant owners.
- Food Finder: Search by address or zip code to find the nearest farmers’ markets, restaurants and farms where visitors can pick their own fruits and vegetables.
Philly Homegrown™is a consumer education and tourism marketing program developed by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation help to broaden people’s understanding of the region’s bountiful local food scene and identify foods that are healthy, delicious and support the local economy.
The Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) makes Philadelphia and The Countryside® a premier destination through marketing and image building that increases business and promotes the region’s vitality.
For more information about travel to Philadelphia, visit visitphilly.com or uwishunu.com, where you can build itineraries; search event calendars; see photos and videos; view interactive maps; sign up for newsletters; listen to HearPhilly, an online radio station about what to see and do in the region; book hotel reservations and more. Or, call the Independence Visitor Center, located in Historic Philadelphia, at (800) 537-7676.
