Often grant models are inequitable, driven by funders’ requirements and needs for data, evidence-based practices, and their lack of appetite to fund what they deem to be risky. What we know from grassroots food justice leaders is that what the project’s many funders deem risky can be the exact items driven by community that have the potential for the greatest change. But who determines what change looks like? Who is defining success? How are the mechanisms of the ‘who’ and ‘what’ within the traditional grant-making model hindering or accelerating the achievement of nutrition equity?
The Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health’s next seminar series event will explore these questions. Titled “Early Learnings From the Development of a Community-Advised Funding Model: A Panel Presentation,” this event will be held Tuesday, May 21, from 9 to 10 a.m. via Zoom.
A panel of Nourishing Power Network members will reflect on insights gained through developing the first round of the Nutrition Equity Fund. Attendees will hear about the steps they took to “bake equity” into the fund design, lessons from implementing the first round of funding, and what are the experiences like being a grantee of the Nutrition Equity Fund.
The panelists will be Lindsey Lott, Shawn Brown and Tanisha Velez; Shannon Walker will moderate.