Grants to nine organizations will help public and private institutions scale country-based programs and advance national initiatives
NEW YORK | October 3, 2022 – The Rockefeller Foundation announced more than $10 million in funding and collaborative efforts to drive change in public and private procurement dollars to support a better food system through the purchase of more environmentally sustainable and locally sourced food. The funding will be distributed to nine grantees and will build on the Foundation’s Good Food Strategy announced in March.
“Institutions like schools and hospitals across the U.S. spend up to $120 billion on food annually, which means they have tremendous influence over our diets and our food system through their purchasing decisions,” it said. Noah Cohen-Cline, Director of the Food Initiative at the Rockefeller Foundation. “At this scale, their food purchase dollars can have a real impact on access to healthier food, stronger local economies, environmental health and fairer returns for black farmers, food workers and suppliers who have been excluded in the past.”
The Foundation’s largest grant to support the procurement of good food is to the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, Inc. to help launch Growing justice, a collaborative funding effort to expand equitable procurement of good food. This recently established and first-of-its-kind practitioner-designed fund aims to support community-based, BIPOC-led organizations across the country in driving good food procurement strategies. The initiative will strive to improve access to good food, especially for marginalized communities, by supporting diverse local and regional leaders, partnerships and new approaches that change the way community institutions purchase their food. The foundation has led this collaboration with five other founding funders and a group of food system practitioners representing diverse communities across the country.
“Real transformation in our food systems will require innovative new approaches like this,” he said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. “By centering people of color in the food value chain, Growing Justice will increase access to good food while stimulating the kind of equitable economic growth that can make opportunity universal and sustainable.”
The Rockefeller Foundation has been working since 2019 to help institutions improve their procurement practices. The Foundation will continue this work through the new Good Food Strategy by expanding support for underserved farmers and suppliers in the food value chain and by educating and informing regulations and policies that help this work go even further to support more the underserved. The Foundation is providing funding and working closely with school nutrition directors, and their allies, and in close partnership with other organizations that share this vision, including:
Advancing national tools, standards and initiatives
- Community Partners support the Center for Good Food Purchasing to develop impact analysis tools for tracking and analyzing institutional food purchasing data so that it can be used to encourage the delivery of healthier food to populations with low income; and for promoting good food procurement by government institutions and agencies to catalyze regional and national food system transformation to achieve health, climate, economic and equity impacts.
- Health care without harm to support their Healthy Food in Healthcare initiative to leverage the food purchasing power of hospitals to increase the supply of healthy, sustainable and equitably sourced food to vulnerable populations; creating a unified value-based food procurement standard for adoption by schools, hospitals, universities and public agencies; and the creation and coalition of organizations seeking to advance good food procurement policies among federal agencies, in coordination with the Center for Good Food Procurement, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Friends of the Earth.
- Center of the Tides to support the National Farm to School Network to develop and deploy a strategic communications campaign that advances education around values-based school meals.
- Urban School Food Alliance to support the coordinated efforts of member districts to share best practices for providing healthy and delicious meals to students and to leverage purchasing power to increase food quality and reduce costs while incorporating environmentally sound practices .
- Winrock Solutions, LLC. to support the Wallace Center to help implement and evaluate USDA’s federal grant programs to purchase healthy food focused on local and socially disadvantaged farmers and distribute food to institutions such as public schools , early childhood care and food banks.
Supporting country-based efforts
- Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, Inc. will support Growing justice, a collaborative funding effort for the equitable procurement of good food. This recently launched, first-of-its-kind practitioner-designed effort aims to support community-based, BIPOC-led organizations across the country in driving good food procurement strategies.
- Community Services Unlimited, Inc. to support the Equitable Food Oriented Development Cooperation to invest in BIPOC food businesses and projects that advance community-led solutions and their cultivation of a network of community-driven efforts.
- Cornell University to support research to assess the economic, health, and environmental impacts of food and to develop a more transparent public procurement process in New York State.
- Chicago Food Policy Action Council to support the implementation of the goals of the Local Government Good Food Procurement Initiative, the development of equitable food supply chains and work to build a good food culture in all community-based institutions.
The Foundation’s latest grant package is shaped by years of leadership and research that analyzes the true cost of food. In 2021, the Foundation’s True Cost of Food analysis showed that the U.S. food system costs $3.2 trillion annually when considering its impact on people’s health, livelihoods, and the environment, while disproportionately harming people of color. In addition, the Foundation followed that report with a Case Study The True Cost of Food: School Food, which showed that if all U.S. school districts changed their procurement policies and practices, they would create at least $1.28 billion in annual benefits from reduced greenhouse gas emissions and water use, and increased workplace wages. Changes that also increase the dietary quality of school meals could yield an additional $1.52 billion in net benefits from health impacts.
About The Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology and innovation that enable individuals, families and communities to thrive. We work around the world to promote the well-being of humanity and make opportunity universal and sustainable. Our focus is on scaling renewable energy for all, stimulating economic mobility and ensuring equitable access to healthy and nutritious food. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter @RockefellerFdn.
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