Strengthening the Region's Food Supply Chain - Funding Opportunity

Supporting innovative ideas and collaborations that result in increased regional sourcing by New England’s educational institutions.

The Henry P. Kendall Foundation is excited to announce the launch of the 2024 New England Food Vision Prize. The Prize program aims to increase the amount of regionally-produced food served in K-12 school districts, colleges, and universities across New England.

We believe that educational institutions are uniquely positioned to support a thriving and resilient regional food system by leveraging their purchasing power to support local and regional producers and by using their nutrition and dining programs to directly engage students as consumers - showing them how food choices impact health, community, the economy, and the environment.

$1 million will be awarded in prizes ranging from $25,000 to $200,000 to teams seeking to build resiliency, relationships, and capacity within New England’s food supply chain through projects that result in increased preparation, sourcing, serving, or use and consumption of local and regional food in K-12 cafeterias and higher education dining halls.  

Since 2018, the New England Food Vision Prize has supported more than 27 unique projects that test innovative ideas, invest in leaders, and help make measurable progress toward a more self-reliant regional food system. Now in its fifth year, we look forward to supporting ideas and projects that help advance our region toward producing 30% of its food by 2030. Read about past winners and their projects on our website!

Starting April 10th, we invite New England school nutrition and campus dining teams, together with their nonprofit, government and municipality, and for-profit partners from across the region to submit their best ideas for increasing regionally-sourced food on their menus. Prize criteria, eligibility, and timeline can be found on our website. 

May 31, 2024 : Deadline for Letters of Interest
Letters will briefly explain the idea, how the project meets the criteria, and which institutions and partners will collaborate to realize the goal. Letters should be no longer than two pages. Instructions, details on submission, and more information on the Letter of Interest process here.
Submit Letters of Interest (starting Apr. 16)

June 21, 2024 : 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.

August 9, 2024 : Proposal Deadline 
Proposals will expand on the original idea to include responses to a series of prompts, which will be the basis upon which applications are scored by staff and externals reviewers.