W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Food and Society Policy Cluster Request for Pre-proposals

Summary
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) requests pre-proposals for collaborative public policy projects supportive of the broad goals and objectives of its Food and Society (FAS) Initiative.  Prospective grantees should propose innovative work plans and partnership structures designed to promote public policies that will bring about a more sustainable and healthy future for the United States agriculture and food system. A total of approximately $5 million will be granted over multiple years.  

Overview of FAS
Launched in 2000, the FAS Initiative envisions a future food system that provides for all segments of society a safe and nutritious food supply grown in a manner that protects health and the environment and adds economic and social value to rural and urban communities.  To achieve these ends, it supports the creation and expansion of community-based food systems that are locally owned and controlled, environmentally sound, and health-promoting.

The FAS Initiative supports projects in three primary areas:

1. Public Policy – Projects that address public policies (federal, state, and local) that support community-based food systems enterprises and the wider set of values and practices they embody, through education and engagement of decision makers and the public. Such policies can focus on federal farm policy, state economic development, local food procurement, the connection between food, diet, and health, or other relevant issues.


2. Market-Based Change – Projects that demonstrate the economic viability of community-based food systems enterprises, and develop successful models that can be adopted in other communities.


3. Institutional Support – Projects that strengthen partnerships and engagement between university and communities, which in turn enable the project to succeed and the participating community-based groups and universities (their staff and faculty) to benefit.

Taken together, these activities aim to achieve one or more of seven FAS outcomes:

1. Inform public policy that rewards private and public actors who support the creation and expansion of community-based food systems enterprises.


2. Increase the number of farms/acreage that use environmentally sound agricultural systems.


3. Increase the number of economically successful food-related enterprises that are locally-owned and controlled, environmentally sound, and health promoting.


4. Raise the profile and value of scientists, institutes, and organizations that support the advancement of community-based, locally owned, sustainable food system approaches, specifically through the creation and expansion of community-based food systems enterprises.


5. Broaden the agenda for scholarship at land-grant universities and other education institutions to include engagement with community and partners toward a comprehensive approach to improving the food system that includes attention to support of community-based food systems enterprises.


6. Foster public debates on and response to the human health impacts of the current food production/distribution systems and their nutrition and diet implications.


7. Increase the number of funders and partners supporting community-based food systems enterprises that are locally-owned and controlled, environmentally sound, and health promoting.

The FAS Policy Cluster
This request for pre-proposals initiates the process of building a new FAS “policy cluster” of projects; that is a set of programmatic activities that individually and collectively address a clearly identified public policy or set of related public policies.  It offers an opportunity and the challenge to build a multi-sector public interest, policy-focused, collaborative around community-based food system and sustainable agriculture issues. 

WKKF expects that the policy cluster will:

1. Identify a public policy or set of public policy objectives (federal, state, or local) and develop and pursue strategies to achieve those objectives. Targeted policies should develop, enhance, and protect public financial resources and legal authorities that support sustainable community-based food- and agriculture-based enterprises, vehicles for community economic development, environmental improvement, and healthier diets.


2. Develop explicit strategies for collaboration among the participating multi-sector organizations to achieve policy outcomes.

Reponses to this request for pre-proposals should describe all policy advocacy activities that the applicant(s) consider necessary to achieve the charitable purposes of their work.  WKKF will consider supporting the full range of policy advocacy activities to the extent permitted by Internal Revenue Service regulations. 

Guidance
WKKF invites organizations to reflect on the mission of the FAS Initiative and to propose how they would advance that mission through collaborative partnerships.  Pre-proposals should spell out how partnering organizations would maximize resources through information sharing, complementary fields of specialization and expertise, and efficient division of labor between organizations related to analysis, policy development, government relations, grassroots outreach, public education, media relations, and group facilitation work. 

Priority will be given to pre-proposals that:

• Ensure collaboration and joint accountability between partnering organizations


• Involve organizations with strong leadership and institutional capabilities, a history of significant impact in the policy arena, and with a record of successful collaboration 


• Focus on system-wide change resulting in community impact 


• Show a commitment to policy changes that impact people from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds


• Secure funding to complement WKKF support


• Demonstrate commitment to evaluation

Applicant organizations must be nonprofit corporations with proof of 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

Total available funds are approximately $5 million.  Multiple-year projects will be considered. 

Instructions
Pre-proposals, no more than five pages in length, should contain the following minimal information:

• Contact information for grantee organization


• List of partnering organizations and roles


• Summary of objectives and activities 


• Summary of anticipated outcomes and impacts 


• Total project budget and amount requested from Kellogg


• Anticipated duration of proposed project (starting and ending dates)

Pre-proposals should be submitted electronically to:

W.K. Kellogg Foundation
fasrfp@wkkf.org

Deadline for receipt of pre-proposals is April 12, 2004.   Applicants will be notified of the status of their request on or before July 1, 2004.  Successful applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal.