Building Regional Resilience Through Partnerships!
Photo: Food System Funder Network Meeting at the Heinz Endowments, April 19th, 2023
Pittsburgh Food Policy Council is in the process of creating a food system funders group specific to Southwest Pennsylvania, in partnership with Heinz Endowments, Bridgeway Capital, and Grantmakers of Western PA. This effort will run through July 2025 and hopefully continue beyond that time.
Our goal in convening regional food system funders is to create a network for SWPA that recognizes the expertise and opportunities across our region. The network will improve coordination and increase communication among funders resulting in benefits for members and the greater SWPA food system.
PFPC members will be directly connected to this effort in different ways over the next few years. The first opportunity took place from May-August 2023 with the PFPC Members Food Funding Survey, which explored how funding opportunities are pursued by members and ways that our members can use support in seeking funds. As part of this work, a grant writer(s) will be hired to assist our members with applying for grants. We are currently seeking grant writers to apply for this role. Please check out the RFP here and please share the opportunity with your network!
PFPC has already begun leading initial conversations with interested funders (i.e. foundation, corporate, and government funders, Community Development Financing Initiatives (CDFIs), etc.). Similar to the member survey, we sent a survey to funders asking about their funding priorities and how they work within the food system. Food system funders will be invited to attend the inaugural Local Food Systems Summit in 2024 to learn about existing work, identify new opportunities for providing support, and engage with attendees.
There is an opportunity to link the food system funder network with the recently-established City created Food Justice Fund (FJF) and its goal of shrinking Pittsburgh’s racial wealth gap, which contributes to food insecurity and health inequities. The FJF will be managed by the City and governed by an appointed committee of community representatives who will represent an important voice at future discussions. We are now seeking nominations to be recommended by the Food Justice Committee. Click here to nominate yourself or someone you know.
The work is part of the Regional Food Systems Partnership grant the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council was awarded by the USDA in October 2022. The Regional Food System Partnerships (RFSP) program support partnerships that connect public and private resources to plan and develop local or regional food systems. RFSP supports public-private partnerships that plan and develop relationships between local and regional producers, processors, intermediaries, and institutional markets or institutional food service operations through local and regional producers and local and regional food systems. The PFPC proposal included funding for:
Facilitating and funding assessments for the Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Good Food Purchasing Program
Convening two ‘Local Food System Summits’
Working with major regional institutions to identify barriers to and interest in local purchasing
Creating capacity to convene regional food system funders
There is an opportunity to connect the funder network to other work listed above, such as sharing gaps identified by institutional partners and areas farmers / suppliers.
Please stay tuned for additional updates and opportunities to connect to this work!
