Austin Fresh
This grant program is administered by Fresh Taste, fiscally sponsored by Forefront. Please refer to their website for additional information and to apply.
Austin Fresh is a collaborative grantmaking program, started in 2020, to increase access to healthy affordable food, support community gardens and local food production, grow food enterprises, and protect and strengthen food assistance programs in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. The vision is an equitable Chicagoland region where all people have knowledge of and access to healthy food.
The program uses a place-based model focusing on listening to community needs and supporting community-owned solutions to make healthy food affordable and plentiful. To address issues of equity and racial justice, Austin Fresh recognizes the need to place Austin on a more just and equitable footing with regard to food access with a minimum of $1M for each of five years (2021-2025) to support the neighborhood.
Key Dates
The Call for Ideas form will open on July 29, and submissions are due August 26, 2024, 11:59 PM CDT.
About the Collaborating Foundations
The Builders Initiative works to realize a humane and healthy planet, while changing markets and minds for good. We champion communities, people, and ideas on the frontiers of change. At TBI we see our role as taking risks, laying the groundwork, and establishing the baseline for change and scale to come.
The Christopher Family Foundation strengthens communities and families through a lens of access and equity. Rooted in a Christian perspective, we use our grant-making to foster creativity and innovation and to build capacity and collaboration in our areas of funding priority.
Food:Land:Opportunity aims to create a resilient local food economy that protects and conserves land and other natural resources while promoting market innovation and building wealth and assets in the Chicago region’s communities. Food:Land:Opportunity is a collaborative initiative between Kinship Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust and is funded through the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust.
The Lumpkin Family Foundation supports people working together to create healthy, sustainable communities in east central Illinois and across the US. Our interest in Austin arises from family members who live in and care deeply about the health and vitality of Chicago.
The Walter Mander Foundation is a medium sized, family foundation which supports Chicago-area organizations working in the areas of community gardening, urban agriculture and community economic development, particularly organizations seeking to strengthen local food and agriculture businesses.
Questions?
For general questions or help with the online application system:
Vanessa Reese, Fresh Taste, austinfresh@freshtaste.org
Specific questions about projectsmay be directed to any of the partner foundation representatives:
Lenore Beyer, Director of Conservation Initiatives, Kinship Foundation, Lenore.beyer@kinshipfoundation.org
Clare Butterfield, Executive Director, The Christopher Family Foundation, clare@christopherff.org
Bruce Karmazin, Executive Director, The Lumpkin Family Foundation, bruce@lumpkinfoundation.org
Haven Leeming, Program Officer, The Builders Initiative, hleeming@buildersvision.com
Chuck Wolf, President, Walter Mander Foundation, cbw921@gmail.com or Cassandra West, cwest@waltermanderfoundation.org
Please direct inquiries on the Austin Fresh to:
Monique B. Schlichtman
Senior Program Officer, ChicagoPhone: 773-420-7047
Email: monique@lumpkinfoundation.org