Supporting Community-Led Solutions to End Hunger
Client: Feeding America
Project Timeframe: 2021-present
Location: National
Our partnership with Feeding America began in 2016 to understand challenges to food access within local sites and programs. We expanded our work to co-design solutions with food banks, neighbors, community leaders, and frontline staff to address hunger in their communities.
With support from our team, Feeding America launched the Equity Impact Fund to direct resources to the root causes of food insecurity. For the first time, Feeding America provided grants to BIPOC communities, farmers, growers, and producers developing just food systems. In its first year, the grant has funded 25 food banks and 60 community organizations.
Our work is two-fold: co-designing the fund with grantees so the experience reflects grantees’ needs, helping Feeding America define the grant’s impact, and offering technical assistance to grantees. Our work includes helping Feeding America identify the root causes of food insecurity, craft an accompanying theory of change, and develop trust-based evaluation practices.
In July 2023, we capped off the inaugural year for the Equity Impact Fund with a summit for grantees. We designed and facilitated the summit. Over 150 grantees met from 22 states and Puerto Rico to learn, collaborate across projects, and celebrate the first year of the grant together.
CREDIT: Alyssa Schukar for Feeding America
