Grant Programs
Neighborhood Fresh Programs
Grant Overview
North Lawndale Fresh Program
The North Lawndale Fresh grant program is administered in the spring by Fresh Taste, fiscally sponsored by Forefront.
North Lawndale Fresh is a collaborative grant making program created in 2022 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 North Lawndale neighborhood. The vision is an equitable Chicagoland region where all people have knowledge of and access to healthy food. The funders involved with North Lawndale Fresh have committed to distribute a minimum of $1M for each over five years (2022-2026) to support the neighborhood. In addition to The Lumpkin Family Foundation, it is supported by The Builders Initiative, Food:Land:Opportunity, the Walter Mander Foundation, and Steans Family Foundation.
Grants were Awarded May 30, 2025.
Austin Fresh Program
The Austin Fresh grant program is administered in the fall by Fresh Taste, fiscally sponsored by Forefront.
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. In addition to The Lumpkin Family Foundation, it is supported by The Builders Initiative, The Christopher Family Foundation, Food:Land:Opportunity, and the Walter Mander Foundation.
The next Call for Ideas will open in August 2025.
Grant Deadlines:
Call for Ideas Accepted:
August 2025
Proposals Invited:
September 2025
Proposals Due:
October 2025
Grants Awarded:
December 2025
Amount Donated:
$10,896,268
Chicagoland - Austin + North Lawndale Neighborhoods
Region
Area Map
Chicago Area
Please Direct Inquiries To:
Monique B. Schlichtman
Senior Program Officer, Chicago
Phone: 773-420-7047
Email: monique@lumpkinfoundation.org
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 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.
Steans Family Foundation does its place-based grantmaking in North Lawndale, and in 2016, added North Chicago, a city 40 miles north of Chicago, to its focus. To augment the work in both North Lawndale and North Chicago, the Steans Family Foundation’s policy and ecosystem program works across multiple issue areas including early childhood, education, employment, and community development. This priority seeks to connect systems-level change to real impact on community members by grounding the policy agenda in the challenges and opportunities in the communities served.
