Nutrition Education & School Food
Organizations working to provide healthy, culturally relevant, nourishing food and nutrition education for children
Lead image courtesy of Harlem Grown
Nutrition Education & School Food is one of Newman’s Own Foundation’s three main programmatic areas in service of our mission.
This year, we have awarded over $3.4M to 21 organizations across the country working to bring food justice to children throughout the United States in schools and through nutrition education. These innovative entities are working tirelessly to ensure children are learning about, growing, gathering, or cooking healthy, nutritious, culturally relevant foods; shift school policy, practices, and systems so that children have access to healthy school meals; and support nutrition education and nutritious food in schools.
Black Girls Cook
2024 Food Justice for Kids Prize Recipient
Black Girls Cook (Florida and Maryland) is a Miami and Baltimore-based nonprofit helping young girls embrace the farm-to-table concept while also learning about Black Diaspora history.
Center for Ecoliteracy
2024 Food Justice for Kids Prize Recipient
Center for Ecoliteracy advances change in TK–12 schools with California Food for California Kids® — a network of school districts committed to serving more fresh and local school meals and educating students about the food system.
Chef Ann Foundation
The Chef Ann Foundation ensures that school food professionals have the resources, funding, and support they need to provide fresh, healthy, delicious, cooked-from-scratch meals that support the health of children and the planet.
Community Food Advocates
The mission of Community Food Advocates (CFA) is to ensure all New Yorkers have access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate foods through equity-centered, high impact public policy. CFA builds creative, strategic coalitions—engaging those directly impacted—to leverage the strength of collective power, experiences, and knowledge to achieve policy change. Through its Youth Food Advocates program, CFA is growing the next generation of food justice leaders by doing a deep dive into the policies that shape our food system, and providing experiential learning opportunities where young people develop the skills to fully engage in the policy making process and create systemic change in the nation’s largest school system.
Detroit Food & Entrepreneurship Academy
2024 Food Justice for Kids Prize Recipient
Detroit Food & Entrepreneurship Academy (Michigan) is a non-profit that works to inspire young Detroiters (ages 10-24) through culinary arts and food entrepreneurship.
End Hunger Connecticut!
End Hunger Connecticut! is a statewide anti-hunger nonprofit in Connecticut dedicated to eliminating hunger and promoting healthy nutrition through outreach, public education, and legislative and administrative advocacy. As part of its work, the nonprofit seeks permanent legislative funding for free, nutritious school meals for all K-12 students in Connecticut.
Food Research and Action Center
Through strong advocacy and partnerships, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) helps to eradicate poverty-related hunger and undernutrition in the United States. As one pillar of its work, FRAC leads efforts to end childhood hunger by working with key groups in every state to educate the public, promote legislation and policy change, and strengthen coalitions.
FoodCorps
FoodCorps helps provide kids with nourishing meals, food education, and culturally affirming experiences with food, and advocates for policies that promote every kid’s health and well-being. The organization collaborates with partners inside and outside the school system—including school nutrition leaders, nonprofit organizations, community groups, and government officials—to support every student’s health, education, and sense of belonging.
FoodWhat Incorporated
“Food, What?!” is a youth empowerment and food justice organization. At FoodWhat, youth engage in relationships with land, food, and each other in ways that are grounded in love and rooted in justice. The organization provides meaningful space where youth from the Santa Cruz, CA, region define and cultivate their empowerment, liberation, and well-being.
FRESHFARM
2024 Food Justice for Kids Prize Recipient
FRESHFARM works to create a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable food future.
Georgia Organics
The Georgia Organics Farm to School Innovation Mini Grant provides local school districts with the opportunity to expand their farm to school programming based on their needs and goals. The purpose of this program is to strengthen the community of Georgia farm to school champions, to gather data and best practices, to advance health equity and to overall encourage innovative nutrition and gardening education efforts.
Greater Newark Conservancy
Greater Newark Conservancy fosters collaboration in its community at the intersection of environmental, food, and racial justice to promote the health and wellbeing of Newark, NJ, residents. The Conservancy engages with thousands of schoolchildren and adults each year, by promoting good nutrition, healthy eating, and how to grow one’s own fresh food, and by forming a coalition of local stakeholders to advocate for healthy meals being served in school cafeterias.
Green Bronx Machine
Green Bronx Machine (GBM) builds healthy, equitable, and resilient communities through inspired education, local food systems, and 21st century workforce development. Dedicated to cultivating minds and harvesting hope, GBM’s school-based model, using urban agriculture aligned to key school performance indicators, grows healthy students and high-performing schools to transform communities that are fragmented and marginalized into neighborhoods that are inclusive and thriving. GBM grows vegetables, the vegetables grow students, and the students grow happy, healthy, and thriving classrooms, schools, and communities en-route to better health outcomes.
Green Village Initiative
Green Village Initiative (GVI) is an urban agriculture and food justice organization in Bridgeport, CT. Its mission is to grow food, knowledge, leadership, and community through urban gardening and farming, to create a more just food system in Bridgeport. The GVI Youth Leadership Program cultivates leaders in agricultural, food justice, career readiness, and leadership knowledge skills through the Summer Farm Crew and Food Leader Advisory Group (FLAG) programs. Youth not only develop an understanding of our food system, but they also forge meaningful connections with their neighbors, land, and city as they grow.
Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities
Founded in 1995, Groundwork develops sustainable local-based solutions in local food, clean energy, and livable towns. Groundwork supports the outreach, advocacy, and policy engagement on the 10 Cents a Meal for Michigan’s Kids & Farms, a state program implemented by the Michigan Department of Education, that provides schools and early childhood education centers with up to 10 cents per meal in match funding to purchase and serve Michigan-grown fruits, vegetables, and dry beans.
Grow Dat Youth Farm
The mission of Grow Dat Youth Farm is to nurture a diverse group of young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food. Since 2010, Grow Dat has graduated over 600 youth participants with hands-on work experience, harvested about 383,325 pounds of food for the New Orleans community, and donated about 76,665 pounds of that food to other food-insecure residents.
Harlem Grown
Healthy habits start young, which is why Harlem Grown’s programs target elementary-aged students. Urban farms become living classrooms and facilitate hands-on lessons. Children from urban settings are introduced to sustainable growing practices, as well as farm-based education programming. The result is a sense of membership in an environmentally conscious, sustainable community. Harlem Grown’s programming empowers children to be community leaders with the skills and agency to maintain their well-being and succeed in their careers.
Healthy Harvest of North Iowa
Healthy Harvest of North Iowa connects and educates in support of the local food system. The nonprofit partners with regional school districts, early care centers, local food hubs, extension offices, and more to increase the procurement of local foods into cafeterias for the youth of North Iowa, school garden and greenhouse activities, and related nutrition education in the classroom.
Massachusetts Farm to School
Massachusetts Farm to School works to strengthen local farms and fisheries and promote healthy communities by increasing local food purchasing and education at schools.
Mississippi Farm to School Network
The Mississippi Farm to School Network builds strong connections within Mississippi communities by promoting healthy, locally grown foods and supporting local producers. By implementing changes in food purchasing and education practices at schools and early childcare institutions, students can access nutrient-dense locally grown foods and educational opportunities, such as school gardens, cooking demos, and farm field trips.
The Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger
2024 Food Justice for Kids Prize Recipient
The Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger is a public non-profit dedicated to changing our food system to improve and increase nutrition security for Montana’s children and their families.
Mississippi Farm to School Network
The Mississippi Farm to School Network builds strong connections within Mississippi communities by promoting healthy, locally grown foods and supporting local producers. By implementing changes in food purchasing and education practices at schools and early childcare institutions, students can access nutrient-dense locally grown foods and educational opportunities, such as school gardens, cooking demos, and farm field trips.
National Farm to School Network
The mission of the National Farm to School Network (NFSN) is to increase access to local food, gardens, and nutrition and agriculture education to improve children’s health, strengthen family farms, and cultivate vibrant communities. NFSN envisions a nation in which farm to school and farm to early care and education are essential components of strong and just local and regional food systems. NFSN works to develop a strong network of partners across sectors, build awareness about farm to school, and increase activities at the state and regional levels through training, capacity building, and policy advocacy.
Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network
Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network (OFSSGN) connects and supports members of Oregon’s Farm to School community to create a just, equitable food and education system that provides access to healthy, local school meals and food, farm, and garden education. The OFSSGN provides resources, technical assistance, training, networking, and policy advocacy to build a stronger farm to school movement in Oregon.
Soul Fire Farm
Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Based in Petersburg, NY, the organization brings diverse communities together on this healing land to share skills on sustainable agriculture, natural building, spiritual activism, health, and environmental justice. Through one-day workshops, youth can learn about food systems, food justice, and how to be agents of change in society.
Southwest Organizing Project
SWOP is a membership-based organization with a mission to work with communities in the Southwest to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic change. SWOP has a core of over 2,000 members and a supporting base of over 30,000 people in New Mexico. It regularly brings dozens of members to community meetings and hundreds of community members to large-scale events, and it engages with thousands of active users online through its many platforms and campaign areas. SWOP works in campaign areas related to youth empowerment, juvenile justice, civic engagement, gender justice and reproductive rights, food justice, and environmental justice.
Urban School Food Alliance
2024 Food Justice for Kids Prize Recipient
Urban School Food Alliance addresses the unique needs of the nation’s largest school districts and shares best practices, develops procurement standards, and advocates for the wellness of students.
Wellness in the Schools
Wellness in the Schools (WITS) is a national nonprofit that teaches public school students healthy habits to learn, live, and thrive. WITS partners with public schools, chefs, and coaches to expand access to nourishing food and active play.
