Vote for Newman’s Own Foundation’s Community Choice Awards and Join our Food Justice for Kids Live Pitch Event on September 10!

You Can Now Vote for the Community Choice Awards!

You are invited to vote in the Community Choice Awards, where two $10,000+ grants will be awarded to the 2 finalists that receive the most votes! More details below.

Congratulations to the Newman’s Own Foundation’s Food Justice for Kids Prize finalists, with up to $1M in total pooled funding available for nonprofits and tribes working to advance food justice for children in the U.S.!

Join us on September 10 from 2:00-5:00 p.m. ET for our virtual Live Pitch Event, where you will get to meet our 20 Food Justice for Kids Prize Finalists! Be sure to cast your vote for your favorite finalists– the two with the most votes will receive the Community Choice Award and a grant of $10,000+ each!

Ahead of September 10, you can read up on the 20 Food Justice for Kids Prize Finalists here:

• Indigenous Food Justice Focused
  • Boys and Girls Club of Rosebud (South Dakota): is a South Dakota-based organization providing youth on the Rosebud Reservation with pathways to brighter futures and tools to  overcome poverty, barriers to education, and lower than average life expectancy at birth. 
  • Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Alaska): is a tribal government working to preserve sovereignty, enhance economic and cultural resources, and promote self-sufficiency and self-governance for over 37,000 Tlingit and Haida Indians.
  • Growing Gardens (Oregon): is a Portland, Oregon based nonprofit using the experience of growing food in schools, backyards, and correctional facilities to cultivate healthy and equitable communities.
  • Hawaii Good Food Alliance (Hawaii):  is a diverse hub of individuals and organizations who share in the production, aggregation, and distribution of food, and in the practice of mālama ʻāina to re-build thriving community food systems.
  • Intertribal Agriculture Council (Montana): is a Montana-based organization that conducts a wide range of programs designed to improve Indian Agriculture and provide a unified effort to promote change for the benefit of Indian people.
  • Iwikua ( Hawaii): serves as an educational resource to benefit the wellness of west Kaua’i and future generations through sustainable food production, physical fitness, and cultural exchange.
  • Keres Children’s Learning Center (New Mexico): is a New Mexico-based organization that strives to reclaim Keres children’s education and honor their heritage by using a comprehensive cultural and academic curriculum to assist families in nurturing healthy students.
  • Mni Wichoni Health Circle (North Dakota): is a North Dakota-based organization that models, teaches, and nurtures its people at every stage, promoting holistic community wellness and building spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental balance.
  • Partnerships with Native Americans (Texas): is a nonprofit organization that works with tribal communities to improve the quality of life for Native Americans living on reservations.
  • Snoqualmie Tribe (Washington): is a sovereign tribal nation in Washington State that provides health and wellness services and education benefits to its people.

• Nutrition Education and School Food Focused
  • Arizona Food Bank Network (Arizona): is a coalition of regional food banks, food pantries and agencies working together to feed more than 550,000 food insecure people monthly in all 15 counties in Arizona.
  • Black Girls Cook (Maryland & Florida): 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 (California):  is a Berkeley, CA-based organization advancing change in TK–12 education and school food systems to support students and the people who nourish them.
  • Detroit Food & Entrepreneurship Academy (Michigan): is a non-profit that works to inspire young Detroiters (ages 10-24) through culinary arts and food entrepreneurship.
  • Early Childhood Council of Boulder County (Colorado): has a vision to ensure that all young children in Boulder County are valued, healthy and thriving.
  • FRESHFARMs (Washington, DC):  is a nonprofit based in Washington, DC, that works to create a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable food future.
  • Jefferson County Food Policy Council (Colorado):  is a community-led, collaborative organization working to influence policy to increase equitable access to healthy, local and affordable food and support a sustainable community food system.
  • Teens for Food Justice (New York): is building a food-secure future through school-based, youth-led hydroponic farming, providing local, sustainably-grown produce to food desert communities and building health, education and opportunity equity for all New Yorkers and beyond.
  • The Montana Partnership to End Childhood Hunger (Montana): is a public non-profit dedicated to changing our food system to improve and increase nutrition security for Montana’s children and their families.
  • Urban School Food Alliance (Washington, DC): is a Washington, DC-based organization that addresses the unique needs of the nation’s largest school districts and shares best practices, develops procurement standards, advocates for the wellness of students and leverages their collective voice to transform school meals.

Join us for a Virtual Live Pitch Event 

September 10 from 2:00-5:00 p.m. ET. 

Register here

The Food Justice for Kids Prize Live Pitch Event will be hosted online via webinar and open for anyone, anywhere to watch. It will feature pitches from all 20 finalists with the  Indigenous Food Justice finalists from 2:00-3:30 p.m. and the Nutrition Education and School Food finalists from 3:30-5:00 p.m. 

Each finalist will have 3 minutes to pitch their idea, followed by a Q&A with issue area experts and leaders from both sectors from our Advisory Council. This will inform scoring of each finalist according to the criteria in the prize rules.

After the event, the total scores will be tabulated to determine the grantees. In total, up to 5 grantees for each category will be selected, and will be awarded a $50,000 grant in 2024, with an opportunity to receive an additional $50,000 grant in 2025, for a total of up to $100,000 for 10 organizations over 2 years.

Get Ready to Vote for the Community Choice Awards!

In addition to the Live Pitch Event , you are invited to vote in the Community Choice Awards, where two $10,000+ grants will be awarded to the 2 finalists that receive the most votes. Voting will open on August 20 at 12 p.m. ET in Newman’s Own Community Fund. (To vote, individuals must join the Community Fund as a member—it’s free to do so, donations are welcome but not required. Any donations made between August 20 and September 10 will be added to the pool and split between the two Community Choice Awards recipients.) For full rules on the Community Choice Award, please see here.