Contact: Rebecca Noricks
269.969.2079
rebecca.noricks@wkkf.org
What steps can be taken at the beginning of children’s lives that will enable them to reach their full potential in school, work and life?
Early childhood advocates explore various approaches to helping children, their families and larger communities thrive. Through their stories, the leaders and advocates share knowledge, first-hand experiences and community-based strategies they’ve witnessed in action.
“The W.K. Kellogg Foundation defines early childhood as the period from a child’s birth to his or her eighth birthday. This period is the foundation for later learning and development,” said Joanne Krell, vice president for communications at WKKF. “That makes it also the ideal point at which to interrupt the generational cycle of poverty that might otherwise doom future generations to the vulnerability of their parents when they were children.”
The report includes the essays by and interviews with:
- Jeff Duncan-Andrade, director of education equity at the Institute for Sustainable Economic, Educational and Environmental Design in Oakland, Calf.
- Kimberly Seals Allers, journalist, author, breastfeeding advocate and WKKF Food & Community Fellow doing work in New Orleans, Jackson, Miss., and Birmingham, Ala.
- Dr. Wiener LeBlanc, emeritus professor of clinical pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons doing work in Haiti.
- Veronica Felix, community organizer at the Manaus Fund’s Valley Settlement Project in Carbondale, Colo.
- Fred Patrick, national project director at the Vera Institute of Justice’s Pathways from Prison to Post-Secondary Education Project in doing work in Michigan, New Jersey and North Carolina.
Perspectives from WKKF’s leadership are also featured, sharing the ways in which the foundation is working on optimal child development and how, based on current and ever-expanding knowledge, it is looking to continue fulfilling its mission in the future. New grant commitments, financial reports and summaries for each programming area are also highlighted.
Grantmaking at a glance
During the past fiscal year, Sept. 1, 2012, through Aug. 31, 2013, the foundation made $179,392,220 in new commitments to 563 new projects and paid grant expenditures of $293,562,818 to its 2,004 active projects.
In the foundation’s home state of Michigan, it made 128 new commitments totaling $48 million, including approximately $13 million in Battle Creek; $15 million in Detroit; and $8 million in Grand Rapids. It also opened a new, place-based office in Detroit in December 2013.
For WKKF’s other U.S. priority places, the foundation made new commitments of $21 million in Mississippi; $13 million in New Mexico; and $10 million in New Orleans. The foundation committed another $67 million nationwide in the United States. International commitments totaled $20 million with $10 million of that in Mexico and $5 million in Haiti, which are both WKKF priority places.
A full version of the annual report is available for download on foundation’s website at wkkf.org or read a blog post about the report here.
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About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to help break the cycle of poverty by removing barriers based on race or income that hold back children, so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.
