BOSTON — The Henry P. Kendall Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 New England Food Vision Prize, a multi-year commitment aimed at building resiliency, relationships, and capacity within New England’s farm to institution food supply chain. Thirty-eight project teams submitted their ideas for the 2023 Prize and nine were selected as this year’s winners, bringing together public school districts and higher education institutions with farmers, distributors, food hubs, and other food system stakeholders to expand collaboration and increase regionally produced food in education institutions across New England.

The 2023 New England Food Vision Prize winners are:

• Connecting Maine’s Supply with Southern New England’s Demand (RI, MA, ME): Farm Fresh Rhode Island, in collaboration with Boston Food Hub, Harvesting Good, and Smithfield Public School District, was awarded $200,000 to expand the supply chain linking Maine-grown broccoli with the robust network of K-12 schools, colleges, and institutions in southern New England.
• Facilitating Local Procurement in Connecticut’s Culinary Classrooms (CT): Yellow Farmhouse Education Center, in partnership with the Stonington Public School District, Healthy PlanEat, and UConn Extension’s Put Local on Your Tray Program, was awarded $45,000 to research and activate the purchasing power of Family & Consumer Science teachers in Montville, Fitch, and Middletown High Schools. The project’s goal is to support these teachers in allocating 25% of their culinary program budget to regionally produced food, which could result in an estimated $500,000 flowing to local farms and food producers.
• Farm to School Integration for Beginning BIPOC Farmers (RI, MA): Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (RI), in collaboration with Open Farms Retreat, Cumberland School District, Roch’s Fresh Foods, and Northeast Organic Farmers Association- MA, was awarded $120,300 to support a two-year program designed to create a direct farm-to-school pathway in Cumberland, Rhode Island.  Funding will support new farm infrastructure and required certifications, beginning-farmer technical assistance and training, and school and community engagement efforts.
• Food Connects Scaling Up to Meet K-12/Higher Education Demand (VT): Food Connects, in partnership with Bennington College, White River Valley Supervisory Union, and Windham Northeast Supervisory Union, was awarded $199,788 to expand the values-driven wholesale distribution system that provides Vermont, Western Massachusetts, and Southern New Hampshire’s educational institutions with access to source-identified New England regional foods. Funding will help increase sales capacity, onboard additional products through new and existing supply chains, and achieve approved vendor status with food service management companies.
• Improving K-12 Farm to School Access in Western Vermont (VT): Addison County Relocalization Network, was awarded $95,782 to work with six school districts in Vermont’s Addison, Chittenden, and Rutland counties to strengthen local food procurement in K-12 schools as well as with Middlebury College, the largest food purchaser in Addison County. Prize funding will allow the Addison County Relocalization Network to facilitate the aggregation, sales, and distribution of significantly more local food through their growing food hub in Vermont’s Champlain Valley.
• Keney Park Sustainability Project & Hartford Public Schools Local Collaborative Kitchen (CT): The Keney Park Sustainability Project, in partnership with Hartford Public Schools, was awarded $200,000 to establish and operate a prep kitchen that will streamline the aggregation and processing of locally grown produce specifically for Hartford’s school kitchens and cafeterias.  This new facility will meet district needs while providing an important market for local farmers and consistent, fresh locally grown produce for Hartford’s 13,000 students.
• Lowell Eats Local (MA): University of Massachusetts Lowell, along with its partners Mill City Grows, Lowell Public Schools, Aramark, and the Asian American Center for Excellence & Engagement, has been awarded $199,500 to lead the Lowell Eats Local project.  Bringing together nonprofits, public K-12 schools, and contract dining providers, the project will significantly increase local food purchases at UMass Lowell, develop culturally connected menu options with specialty ingredients, and coordinate city-wide food purchases to change the food distribution and Greater Lowell food aggregation systems.
• Maine Immigrant Greens Collaborative (ME): Wayside Food Programs has been awarded $199,950 to support the Maine Immigrant Greens Collaborative; a project involving Westbrook School District, South Portland Public School Department, Farms for Food Equity, Lewiston Public School District, Isuken Co-Op, Maine Farm and Sea Cooperative, and Atlantic Sea Farms.  This project increases the use of locally grown, hearty greens in K-12 schools.  By developing a unique partnership between agriculture’s production capacity and aquaculture’s processing facilities, this work will help to meet community-determined needs of immigrant and asylum-seeking families in Maine.
• Preserving Surplus Produce to Aid the Re-localization of School Food Sourcing (VT): Salvation Farms, with partners Lamoille South Supervisory Union, Lamoille North Supervisory Union & School District, and The Abbey Group, has been awarded $168,875 to create a line of cost competitive, frozen foods for K-12 schools utilizing locally grown, surplus crops.  The learning, experimentation, and partnership development during this two year project has the potential to shift existing systems, processes, and ways of working that have impacted institutional buyers’ ability to access local food in a cost effective and operationally efficient way.

The New England Food Vision Prize, named for the regional goal of producing 50% of New England’s food within the region by 2060, was launched in 2018 by the Henry P. Kendall Foundation. Its focus is to combine the food purchasing power of educational institutions in the region with the engagement of its students – the future consumers in the region – to increase the amount of regionally produced food on their menus.

“The opportunity to strengthen New England’s food system has never been clearer with the strong showing of interest by districts and campuses, and compelling teams and transformative ideas from across the region. Thanks and appreciation are owed to all who have been involved.  To teams that weren’t awarded a Prize, keep pursuing your work as it is still important to the region.  To the winning teams, congratulations, and we look forward to seeing your transformative ideas take shape in the coming year.” – Andy Kendall, Executive Director

The Henry P. Kendall Foundation would like to thank this year’s proposal reviewers for their participation in the Prize program.  Each of these individuals brought important personal and professional experience and varying perspectives that added immense value to the review process.  Sam Wilson, Leslie Ekstrand, Caitlin Tenorio, Thai Ha-Ngoc, Jess Stone, Mel Hall, Mellissa Honeywood, Karl Dias, Damaris Hall, Melissa Motejunas, and Holly Fowler.

Read more about the Prize program, sign up for grant alerts, and read about Prize winners on our website: https://bit.ly/NEFVP23

–Henry P. Kendall Foundation