Sustainable Food Systems Initiative: Focus on Food

About the Sustainable Food Systems Initiative

The Danone Institute of North America (DINA) Sustainable Food Systems Initiative supports community-based initiatives focused on food as medicine, health and agriculture. A new funding relationship with FFAR is expanding this open opportunity by providing funding for three additional grants this year, for a total of eight potential grants.

The 2025-2027 initiative commits a total of $410,000 in funding split across eight total grants. Five of the grants will be awarded to five transdisciplinary teams that demonstrate a commitment to actionable and achievable projects contributing to the nutritional health of adult populations. An additional three new grants, funded by FFAR, will go to three teams whose projects focus on agriculture communities.

Over the two-year grant period, grantees will design, implement and evaluate actionable community-based projects for sustainable food systems that improve human health and nutrition. Each of the eight grantee teams will receive $50,000 to support and expand their project. All grantees will also have the opportunity to participate in a communications training workshop to learn how to effectively amplify the work they’re doing across North America. An additional $10,000 will be granted in the fall of 2025 to the team with the strongest communications plan.

On November 20, 2024, FFAR hosted an informational webinar that provided an overview of the Sustainable Food Systems Initiative, the Request for Applications, application components and timelines.