Our Producers

Phully Rooted was seeded when South Philly Food Co-op invited artist Jessica Gath to consider what their motto, Using Food As A Force For Good, looks like in practice. Experience taught her that even though lots of folks want to eat locally-grown produce––for their own health, for Earth, to support local food economies––they don't always know where to start or have the funds to do so. She pulled from her years as a teacher, a cook, a grocer, and a collaborative artist to create how she does best: visually and in community. The result is a perennial, month-by-month almanac that uses original artworks to introduce and create relationships with what farmers are bringing to market, beautifully and practically, while supporting our neighbors struggling with affording fresh, local produce to access it. And relationships, lots of relationships. The first relationships she created were with the artists below whose expression touches each of our senses as we move through the months and years with Phully Rooted. The artists were hired locally, for living wages, and continue to receive a percentage of each sale of Phully Rooted.

We hope our work tempts you to crave locally-sourced nourishment for your own bellies and your loved ones. We thank you for your interest and for helping us to put food on our own tables and the tables of our neighbors struggling with food insecurity.

JESSICA GATH is a possibilitarian who makes artwork in paint, garments, zines, food, correspondence, community, activism, songs, dirt, plants, videos and whatever else gets the job done.

JUSTINE KELLEY is a designer, illustrator, and printmaker who loves to explore the intersection of art and design – to her, making art is to eating as designing is to cooking, and she likes to eat as she cooks.

NICOLE MEDINA is a Latina illustrator based in Philadelphia. She likes to use bold color and detailed patterns to create eye- catching illustrations. Nicole’s worked with clients including Target, The Washington Post and Facebook.

RACHEL BETESH writes poems; tends to a wild and fertile garden; and works as a women’s health nurse in Philadelphia. Her poetry has been featured in The New Yorker, Philadelphia Stories, and Brink magazine.

Other producers without whom Phully Rooted would not be as correct, as beautiful, or as comprehensive are Meg de Brito; Christa Barfield & her team at FarmerJawn; Carly Dougherty of Food and Ferments; the whole teams at Dirtbaby Farm and South Philly Food Co-op, Ceylan Akturk and Christo Wood.

Without Grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Scholler Foundation and sponsorship from the PA Department of Agriculture's PA Preferred Program, we would not have been able to pay living wages to the folks who created Phully Rooted. Thanks to the generous financial support of the above-mentioned, Phully Rooted is a self-sustaining project and will hopefully be inspiring eaters and helping fill pantries for many years to come.

Thank you all!