For Immediate Release: Application Opens for New Round of Funding from Chicago Region Food System Fund to Support Resilience in the Local Food System
***Applications for Fund’s Upcoming Resilience Round Open November 16***
The Chicago Region Food System Fund addresses hunger and business disruption by bolstering the region’s communities and local food system in response to COVID-19 and other systemic shocks. From an initial investment of $4.2M, the Fund has grown to more than $7.3M. As of October 2020, the Fund has awarded 85 grants totaling $3.97M focused on pandemic response projects. In November 2020, a new round of funding that extends beyond immediate emergency response opened. Grantees will be announced soon.
The COVID-19 pandemic is still with us—and the needs of the community and the food system are evolving. This round of funding centers on long-term food system resilience—without losing sight of the pandemic—and is rooted in racial and economic justice. Any definition of resilience requires diversity. The CRFSF team takes a broad view and encourages participation from diverse communities: urban neighborhoods and rural communities; tribal nations; LGBTQIA+ organizations; veterans; food chain workers; food system businesses; investors; and more. The Fund will prioritize BIPOC-led organizations promoting food system resilience in BIPOC communities.
When times are easy and there’s plenty to go around, individual species can go it alone. But when conditions are harsh and life is tenuous, it takes a team sworn to reciprocity to keep life going forward.Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Robin Wall Kimmerer, Author/Professor
The Fund offers a land acknowledgement for the stewardship by indigenous peoples of the region served by the Fund. We honor that stewardship and recognize that we now occupy this land through a long history of theft and exploitation: Chicago is part of the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi nations. Many other tribes—such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Sac, Fox and Menominee—also called this area home. The land is also a site of trade, gathering and healing for countless other Native nations throughout time immemorial. As we open this round of funding to include regional food sovereignty in indigenous communities, we also honor the stewardship of the Oneida, Lakota, Kickapoo, and Peoria people who have protected the land and waters of this region in the past and present. We honor tribal nations and their treaty rights which, in this region, affirm food sovereignty through traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering rights.
The pandemic has taught us a lot. A resilient food system is resilient because people, land, and communities are able to adapt to changing conditions, including major shocks, in ways that minimize immediate losses and strengthen the capacity for everyone to thrive. Food system nonprofits and businesses are moving quickly based on that experience, building on assets, and prototyping new ways of doing things in this changed context. It’s a dynamic moment. The CRFSF team wants to support and accelerate that dynamism as much as possible, both in the grants we make and how we partner to capture learning with a commitment to continual improvement.
Some see resilience in the context of climate change. Others in the ability to live through and transform trauma. Still others see it as food sovereignty rooted in traditional ecological knowledge as practiced by indigenous communities. Or in locally owned and well-integrated food businesses. No one approach can define and ensure resilience—but together the region’s vibrant web of rural, urban, and peri-urban food communities can build a resilient, racially and economically just future
With the current round of funding, the CRFSF is moving beyond immediate emergency response to resilience — while keeping COVID-19 at the center. This application cycle closed on January 13.
Eligibility Criteria
Only 501(c)(3) organizations or fiscal sponsors are eligible to apply, and there are loose geographic restrictions. The Chicago Region Food Fund focuses on an area roughly 200 miles from Chicago. Tribal nations located more than 200 miles from Chicago are eligible to apply if the Chicago region is part of their market. Previous CRFSF grantees are eligible to reapply. See the CRFSF FAQs & Resource page for more info.
The fund was created through the generosity of the founding donors with an initial investment of $4.2M and is managed by Fresh Taste, fiscally sponsored by Forefront.
The Builders Initiative
Food:Land:Opportunity
Fresh Taste
Little Owl Foundation
The Lumpkin Family Foundation
Margot L. Pritzker Fund
Walder Foundation
Walter Mander Foundation
***Applications for Fund’s Upcoming Resilience Round Open November 16***
***Applications for Fund’s Upcoming Resilience Round Open November 16***
***Total of Nearly $3.4M Awarded Since June to 81 Grantees***
If you have any questions about the Chicago Region Food System Fund, including support for applications, email foodsystem@freshtaste.org or call 773-944-5100.
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Media inquiries—Please contact Brandon Hayes, Founder, Bold Bison Communications & Consulting, at 312-945-8416, brandon@boldbisonconsulting.com.
Photos courtesy of Plant Chicago, Elawa Farm Foundation, Chinese American Service League, and Gary Comer Youth Center.