United Fresh Start Foundation awards $53K in grants to community organizations

United Fresh Start Foundation announced the eight recipients of its 2020 Community Innovation Grants Program. The program funds initiatives that aim to increase children’s access, selection and consumption of fresh produce whether at home, on weekends, during the summer, while out to eat or outside the traditional school day.

“The important work of the Foundation comes to fruition when we’re able to support organizations through programs like our Community Innovation Grants Program,” said Phil Muir, President & CEO, Muir Copper Canyon Farms and Chairman, United Fresh Start Foundation’s Board of Trustees. “We’re  grateful for the work that these grant recipients and all applicants do with their focus on fresh and the passion they have for ensuring children in their communities have the ability to make healthier life choices.”

The United Fresh Start Foundation has awarded a total of $53,000 in grant funding to the following 2020 Community Innovation Grants Program recipients:

• FoodShare South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
• Get Healthy Utah, Beaver County, Utah
• Hands on Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut
• LA Food Policy Council, Los Angeles
• Roots for the Home Team, St. Paul, Minnesota
• The Food Trust, Philadelphia
• Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, Warren, Ohio
• YMCA of Lansing, Lansing, Michigan

“We are pleased to support these organizations to ensure children have the increased access and selection of fresh produce that we know they need in order become healthy adults,” said Tom Stenzel, President & CEO, United Fresh. “We want to thank the produce industry for their support through generous contributions to the United Fresh Start Foundation that allow us to extend our work beyond the school day, nurturing an environment where kids have access to produce everywhere they live, learn and play.”

The 2020 program is focused on supporting visionary initiatives and research from organizations including nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organizations, schools, universities, small businesses, and others with innovative projects that align with the Foundation’s mission.

For more information about the Community Innovation Grants Program, contact Mollie Van Lieu, United Fresh’s Senior Director, Nutrition Policy, at 202-303-3403.

More information at www.unitedfreshstart.org.