The Austin Fresh funders collaborative, Builders Initiative, The Christopher Family Foundation, Food:Land:Opportunity, The Lumpkin Family Foundation and the Walter Mander Foundation, reviewed applications for year three of Austin Fresh’s five-year commitment to work collaboratively with partners to expand healthy retail options, support community gardens and local food production, grow food enterprises, and protect and strengthen food assistance programs in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. The Austin Fresh funders made six grant awards for 2022.
Projects being funded this year are:
- Austin Coming Together—for Austin Eats, a coalition working to strengthen the healthy food ecosystem in Austin by increasing the collective impact of its member organizations to improve education and economic development outcomes for the community. $900,000 for two years ($450,000/year)
- Beyond Hunger—for the In The Kitchen: Generational Change through Community Health Ambassadors program. In a partnership with New Moms, ambassadors provide cooking instruction and nutrition information; advocate for healthy cooking and eating habits; and address chronic health issues. $25,000
- BUILD, Inc.—for the Austin Grown program, which addresses food insecurity among youth and families in the community by promoting access to organic food options while teaching healthy food preparation and youth leadership. The program expands on BUILD’s learning garden, The Iris, to create job experiences for teens as they learn about urban agriculture, food production, and food justice. $175,000
- GAP Community Center—for Chiquitos in the Kitchen/Juntos in the Kitchen, a cooking and gardening program that empowers students on the north side of Austin to creatively and sustainably engage with food in the garden, in the kitchen, around the table, and in the community. $50,000
- GJS Family Life Center—to help launch and ramp up community driven operations at the Austin Community Incubator Kitchen, which provides healthy food-centered local entrepreneurship opportunities and nutrition education for Austin neighborhood residents. This project builds on the work that Greater St. John Bible Church and Faith in Place have collaborated on since 2020. $75,000
- Westside Health Authority—for the partnership with Forty Acres Fresh Market toward construction of a brick-and-mortar grocery store. Once completed, the market will increase access to affordable fresh food retail in Austin. $500,000
