Congratulations to our 2022 winners! Learn about their projects and additional partners here.
Click the name of each project lead below to visit their organization’s website.
Applications have closed for 2022. Please check back in 2023.
Below is information about the 2022 Prize; please note that requirements and the process may be different in 2023.
Overview
The 2022 New England Food Vision Prize is a $1 million commitment aimed at building resiliency, relationships, and capacity within New England’s academic institutional food supply chain, resulting in increased preparation, serving, and consumption of local and regional food at K-12 schools, districts, college/university dining programs, or other educational institutions in New England. Prize proposals may range from $25,000 to $200,000.
View the recording of our informational webinar from June 2, 2022
Introduction
The Henry P. Kendall Foundation provides catalytic support to organizations and leaders in pursuit of greater production and consumption of food sustainably grown and harvested in New England. A strong regional food system improves our health, our economy, and our environment. The Foundation believes educational institutions are important community resources and economic anchors. Their buying power can be leveraged to strengthen local supply chain partners as well as engage students about the impact of their food choices.
Opportunity for Your Organization
The 2022 New England Food Vision Prize will award up to $1 million in prizes ranging from $25,000 to $200,000. Prizes will be awarded to projects focused on building resiliency, relationships, and capacity within New England’s educational institution food supply chain. Desired impacts include increased preparation, sourcing, serving, use and/or consumption of local and regional food at K-12 schools, districts, college/university dining programs, or other educational institutions.
Eligibility
Applicants may submit a request individually or as a team. In keeping with a Prize program’s primary Applicants may submit a request individually or as a team. A primary objective of this program is to foster collaboration and create new ways of working together on shared challenges and goals. Grant applicants should identify at least one educational institution that will benefit from the proposed project. A letter of support from each institution will be required as a part of the full application but is not required with the letter of interest submission. If an applicant is an educational institution itself, this satisfies the criterion.
Applicant teams might include:
- Farms / food harvesters / producers
- Food hubs
- Processors
- Network organizations
- Community-based organizations
- Municipal departments/initiatives
- Higher education institutions
- K-12 schools or school districts
- Additional institutions (healthcare, corrections)
While for-profit businesses may participate as project partners, the primary applicant receiving grant funds from the Kendall Foundation must be a nonprofit organization, government entity, or municipality.
Criteria
Impactful: The project will lead to increasing the use of regionally-produced food in K-12 schools, districts, college/university dining programs, or other educational institutions in New England. It is clear what difference this project will make in the local/regional institutional supply chain and who will benefit as a result.
Collaborative: Funding would be used to further relationships with institutional food procurement/supply chain partner(s), ultimately providing regional food to at least one identified educational institution.
Regional: The food impacted by the project should be grown or harvested in New England.
Measurable: The project identifies at least one metric which the applicant will use to track and report progress at providing regional food to institutions.
Sustainable: There is a clear plan for how the project will be managed during the grant period and how the project will continue beyond the initial grant period.
Equitable: The project includes specific action to address injustice and inequity in the food system, including engaging stakeholders in decision-making.
Use of Funding
Examples of possible uses of funding include the following:
- Infrastructure investment
- Equipment purchase
- Capacity and staffing
- Training and certification
- Marketing and awareness building
Funding may not be used for:
- The purchase of food
- Endowment
Prize proposals may range from $25,000 to $200,000, and should include the staffing costs, marketing needs, equipment purchases, capital improvements, etc. The applicants should indicate how many years it will take to fully implement the project. A two-year project is permissible.
Application & Selection Process
Applications have closed for 2022. Please check back in 2023.
May 3, 2022
Prize Announcement
June 30, 2022
Deadline for Letters of Interest: Letters will briefly explain the idea, how it meets the criteria, and what institutions and partners will collaborate to realize the goal. Letters should be no longer than two pages. Letters of Interest should be submitted here by 11:59 pm.
July 15, 2022
Invitation for Full Proposal: The Foundation will review all submitted Letters of Interest and invite a subset of teams to submit full proposals for consideration.
September 1, 2022
Proposal Deadline: Proposals will expand on the original idea to include responses to a series of prompts, which will be the basis upon which applicants will be judged by the review committee. Proposals are by invitation only and are due at 11:59 pm.
September 2022
Proposal Review Period: Depending on the size of the request, applicants may be asked to schedule a video call with members of the review committee. During this period, an external review committee will meet and make recommendations to the Foundation team.
October 20, 2022
Recipients Notified: After approval by the Foundation board, Prize winners will be notified.
Learn about our 2022 Prize winners!
Prize winners will be expected to update the Foundation on their progress periodically, and will be invited to participate in a community of practice among other Prize winners to share progress, knowledge, and experiences related to their work.
Resources
Do you have a seed of an idea but need to talk it out? Are you looking for partners? Are you wondering whether your organization or idea fits this program? Send us an email! We’ll be glad to answer your questions or connect you with one of our current grantee partner organizations who can provide you with support. info@kendall.org