food & community

overview

Access to good, fresh, locally grown food is essential for children’s health and development. For nearly 80 years, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has used its voice to advocate for equitable access to good food and physical activity, and it has used its resources—more than $230 million—to bring meaningful change to our food systems.

In late 2009, the Kellogg Foundation launched Food & Community, a $32 million program focused on creating healthy places where all children thrive. Investments are intended to improve school food systems, increase access to good food and physical activity environments, and to fuel the national healthy living movement. Other foundations, policymakers and partners in agriculture, public health, education and communities across the country are mobilizing to bring about real change for our children.

Specific Food & Community investments include efforts to:

Shape the national healthy eating and active living movement

With the announcement of Food & Community, the Kellogg Foundation continues to shape the national healthy eating and active living movements. Through Food & Community investments, the foundation will leverage investments, expand strategic alliances and share knowledge learned in communities about what works—and what doesn’t—in a continued effort to scale up community models of change. Select movement-building investments include:

• Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership : The Convergence Partnership is a collaborative effort among the most influential philanthropic and health entities in the nation. These major funders have come together with the shared goal of changing policies and environments to advance a vision of healthy people living in healthy places.
  
• Food & Society Fellows : Founded to provide fellowship for food and agriculture professionals and activists—and now joined by community health colleagues from across North America—the fellows program encourages the use of mass media channels to inform and shape the public agenda on food.
  
• Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders Network : This national network aims to strengthen, diversify and expand the community of grantmakers focusing on sustainable agriculture and food systems.
  
• Food & Community Conference: Formerly the Food & Society conference, April 2010 marks the 10th anniversary of this annual convening.
  
• W.K. Kellogg Foundation-endowed chairs in sustainable agriculture and food systems provide a strong national network of academically based individuals who reach out on behalf of spurring and conducting research, innovation and support for communities.