North Lawndale Fresh Grant Program

North Lawndale Fresh Grant Program

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: The Lumpkin Family Foundation
Last Updated: February 07, 2026

Summary

The North Lawndale Fresh Grant Program, managed by the Lumpkin Family Foundation, promotes health and wellness by supporting local food-related initiatives. It aims to enhance the North Lawndale economy through culinary enterprises, improve green spaces, and provide culturally relevant nutrition education. The program encourages collaboration among community members and organizations, fostering innovative approaches to food access and emergency assistance. This initiative embodies the foundation's commitment to community service and leadership development within North Lawndale.

Overview

The Lumpkin Family Foundation is truly a family affair. The Foundation provides a forum for family members to affirm their core values, honor a common legacy of community service and contribute their talents to accomplish shared goals. Three generations of founder Besse A. Lumpkin's family, plus their spouses, make grant decisions and manage the activities of the organization. The Foundation fosters an understanding and respect for the family’s legacy in Central Illinois and encourages individual member philanthropy and community involvement wherever members reside. Family members currently fill seven of nine seats on the Board of Trustees and serve on all grant-making and management committees. The Committee on Trusteeship was created to support the growth and participation of members in relation to The Foundation’s need for leadership. While family participation is essential to our identity, our members value the involvement of others whose expertise and knowledge support the achievement of The Foundation's goals. Independent (non-family) members currently participate on our grant-making committees where most grant decisions are made. We also involve community leaders in ad hoc advisory committees and regularly consult community members when we are developing new programs or evaluating existing ones. North Lawndale Fresh North Lawndale Fresh seeks to encourage fulfillment of the goals of North Lawndale’s “Greening and Open Space” and “Health and Wellness” goals via food by supporting organizations working to do the following: Build the North Lawndale economy through food-related businesses including grocery and culinary enterprisesExpand access and quality of green spaces and food productionDevelop and promote culturally relevant food justice and nutrition educationInnovate emergency food efforts and nutrition assistance programs that expand healthy food optionsPromote information on food resources and activities to North Lawndale residents.

Eligibility

We've imported the main document for this grant to give you an overview. You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. All applicants must be:A 501(c)(3) non-profit (or led by one as the anchor applicant of a collaborative project) or operating with a fiscal sponsor. Operating in North Lawndale, and preferably located in North Lawndale, or have significant partnerships with a North Lawndale organization. Anchor applicants must be led by members of the North Lawndale community. Organizations that are actively and always trying to learn from their work and improve their approaches, even if that involves risk. Organizations that are open to shared learning and working collaboratively.

Application Details

Call for Ideas 2025
Guidelines & FAQs
The Guidelines and FAQs include new information for 2025.
Background
Builders Initiative, Food:Land:Opportunity, The Lumpkin Family Foundation, Steans Family Foundation
and the Walter Mander Foundation want all Chicago communities to thrive. We are united in the belief
that access to healthy, affordable food is a human right and critical to community health. We envision
an equitable Chicagoland region in which all people have knowledge of and access to healthy food.
In 2022, we established North Lawndale Fresh, a one-million-dollar annual fund modeled on our related
fund, Austin Fresh. Over five years (2022-2026), we will work collaboratively with partners to expand
healthy retail options, support community gardens and local food production, grow food enterprises,
and protect and strengthen food assistance programs in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s
West Side. Learn about the 2022-24 grantees here.
We are issuing this call for ideas to elicit projects and encourage collaboration among organizations and
people who know the North Lawndale landscape and understand the requirements for success.
Examples of the types of ideas we would welcome include (but are in no way limited to):
• Planning grants to support the early development of large scale and long-term project ideas that
need more time and resources prior to implementation (see the FAQs below for more info);
• Commercial ventures, including brick & mortar stores, designed to increase access to healthy or
local food while building the economy of the North Lawndale community (provided a non-profit
organization/partner is the applicant);
• Promoting the importance of purchasing food within North Lawndale and increasing awareness
of where to buy healthy food whether that be grocery, restaurant, farmers market etc.;
• Community food gardens which increase access to healthy, affordable food, or activating and
connecting North Lawndale’s network of food growers;
• System improvement: planning for longer-term strategies around food access in order to create
improved systems and build out underdeveloped ideas and strategies;
• Community kitchens and other processing enterprises that add value to food and empower
entrepreneurs to build businesses and create jobs;
• Food cooperatives;
• Food as medicine and food education approaches to health which focus on diet and nutrition;

Call for Ideas 2024 Guidelines & FAQs
• Nutrition education, cooking classes, or community cooking efforts focused on the preparation
of fresh and healthy meals, in which the work of creating prepared meals is shared to make it
easier for families to eat well;
• Expanding or coordinating emergency food efforts;
• Neighborhood or school habitat projects that support food production (e.g. pollinator gardens)
or which give residents greater access to nature or green spaces, even if they aren’t directly
related to food production (e.g. tree planting).
We believe in a place-based model of funding. We strived to listen and learn from the community in the
creation of North Lawndale Fresh, and community representatives will participate in grant-making
decisions. The foundation partners will seek additional ways to learn from and with the people of North
Lawndale to ensure that the challenges of providing affordable, plentiful, and healthy food are
community-owned and supported. Our work in North Lawndale has led us to the wells of talent in the
community and a deep appreciation for all of North Lawndale. We hope our investments can lend
support to local leaders in ways that tip the scales toward justice, healing, and equitable access for all.
Opportunity
Despite strong health institutions and the corridor that is Ogden Ave, North Lawndale ranks 6th lowest in
life expectancy out of Chicago’s 77 community areas. It also ranks among the highest in the Healthy
Chicago 2.0 Hardship Index. North Lawndale envisions a better future. Its community-driven Quality of
Life Plan states emphatically that the next chapter of North Lawndale can be a healthy, vibrant
community with a diversified and innovative economy, competitive workforce, engaged citizens and
infrastructure that supports long-term, sustainable growth (1).
We agree. In line with the Quality of Life Plan’s findings that it’s difficult to stay healthy when confronted
by a combination of neighborhood safety concerns and a lack of fresh food options (110), this call for
ideas seeks to promote healthier food choices across North Lawndale and green up shared spaces,
further increasing the community’s food-productive assets and combatting urban blight.
Goals & Outcomes
North Lawndale Fresh seeks to encourage fulfillment of the goals of North Lawndale’s “Greening and
Open Space” and “Health and Wellness” goals via food by supporting organizations working to do the
following in North Lawndale:
1. Build the North Lawndale economy through food-related businesses including grocery and
culinary enterprises,
2. Expand access and quality of green spaces and food production,
3. Develop and promote culturally relevant food justice and nutrition education,
4. Innovate emergency food efforts and nutrition assistance programs that expand healthy food
options,
5. Promote information on food resources and activities to North Lawndale residents.

Call for Ideas 2024 Guidelines & FAQs
Requirements
All applicants must be:
• A 501(c)(3) non-profit (or led by one as the anchor applicant of a collaborative project) or
operating with a fiscal sponsor.
• Deeply embedded in North Lawndale, and preferably located in North Lawndale, or have
significant partnerships with a North Lawndale organization.
• Anchor applicants must be led by members of the North Lawndale community.
• Organizations that are actively and always trying to learn from their work, and improve their
approaches, even if that involves risk.
• Organizations that are open to shared learning and working collaboratively.
Idea Evaluation
Ideas submitted to North Lawndale Fresh will be considered and evaluated based on the following
criteria:
• Understanding of and connection to the community, its needs, and possible partners
• Idea design and strength
• Organizational capacity
• Innovation and creativity
• Alignment with the North Lawndale The Next Chapter Quality of Life Plan’s priorities
How to Submit
Ideas can be submitted through a short form at the online application system, hosted by Forefront, the
fiscal sponsor of Fresh Taste. Register for a new account (if necessary for your organization) or log-in
with an existing account. Contact us at northlawndalefresh@freshtaste.org for assistance with the
online application system. See the FAQs below for more information.
Key Dates
The 20245 Call for Ideas will open February 3, 2025. Submissions are due by March 2, 2025, 11:59 p.m.
You will hear from us on or before March 25, 2025, if we wish to receive a full proposal. The deadline for
full proposals is April 22, 2025, 11:59 p.m. Grant decisions will be made by a committee of foundation
representatives and community members. Grants will be awarded by June 3, 2025.
About the Foundations
Builders Initiative works to realize a humane and healthy planet, while changing markets and minds for
good. We champion communities, people, and ideas on the frontiers of change. At BI we see our role as
taking risks, laying the groundwork, and establishing the baseline for change and scale to come.
Food:Land:Opportunity aims to create a resilient local food economy that protects and conserves land
and other natural resources while promoting market innovation and building wealth and assets in the
Chicago region’s communities. Food:Land:Opportunity is a collaborative initiative between Kinship

Call for Ideas 2024 Guidelines & FAQs
Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust and is funded through the Searle Funds at The Chicago
Community Trust.
The Lumpkin Family Foundation supports people working together to create healthy, sustainable
communities in east central Illinois and across the US. Our interest in North Lawndale arises from family
members who live in and care deeply about the health and vitality of Chicago.
The Steans Family Foundation (SFF) believes effective revitalization can occur within the existing social,
educational, and economic networks that create and sustain communities. SFF has been investing in
early childhood, education, employment, and community development leaders and organizations in the
North Lawndale community since 1996.
The Walter Mander Foundation is a medium sized, family foundation which supports Chicago-area
organizations working in the areas of community gardening, urban agriculture and community economic
development, particularly organizations seeking to strengthen local food and agriculture businesses.
General FAQs
See below for FAQs about the online application system.
What does it mean for an organization to be “deeply embedded in North Lawndale?”
Applicants whose work, leadership, and/or relationships reflect their commitment to enhancing North
Lawndale residents’ quality of life are considered deeply embedded in North Lawndale. Rather than
providing a narrow definition, we’d like to let organizations define their ties to the North Lawndale
community. A hypothetical example of an organization we would consider to be deeply embedded in
North Lawndale can be a nonprofit organization incorporated in Garfield Park that has deep and long-
standing relationships in North Lawndale teaching youth urban agriculture and entrepreneurship skills
through running a farm stand, selling their grown herbs, flowers, and vegetables to North Lawndale
residents at accessible prices.
What constitutes a project eligible for a planning grant?
We highly encourage organizations to submit ideas for planning grants if they are in the early stages of
projects that require initial research, feasibility studies, convening a steering committee, large capital
investments in the long-term, and/or entail large infrastructural developments, for which North
Lawndale Fresh funds would help organizations break ground on the build-out of that project. An
example of an application that would be considered for a planning grant could be a request for funds to
acquire site control over a building or begin construction of a building that your organization dreams of
one day turning into a food co-op.
Can we apply if we have previously received funding?
You may apply even if you have previously received funding from North Lawndale Fresh, Austin Fresh, or
any of the funding partners. Organizations that have received prior funding from North Lawndale Fresh
will be asked to provide an update on their current North Lawndale Fresh project during the application
process.

Call for Ideas 2024 Guidelines & FAQs
How much can we request? Can we ask for multi-year projects or more than one project?
The annual pool of funding for all projects funded by North Lawndale Fresh is at least one million dollars.
You may submit an idea of any size, including up to the full $1M. You may submit ideas for multi-year
projects and/or general support. You may submit separate ideas for more than one project.
We’re not a 501(c)(3)—what are our options?
North Lawndale Fresh can only fund 501(c)(3) organizations. However, organizations that lack that
status may engage in projects in several ways:
• Community organizations or emerging projects that are deeply embedded in North Lawndale
and do not have nonprofit status (like block clubs) may partner with established non-profits that
can support the work as a program expense through a fiscal sponsorship relationship OR may
work with a traditional fiscal sponsor organization (fiscal sponsor entities need not be North
Lawndale-based)
• Food system businesses may execute project work through a vendor contract with a 501(c)(3)
organization. The 501(c)(3) must be the applicant to North Lawndale Fresh. The business and
the 501(c)(3) must be deeply embedded in North Lawndale.
• Collaborations that include organizations without 501(c)(3) status can be led by an anchor
applicant that is already established as a 501(c)(3) and led by members working in North
Lawndale.
If you’re uncertain whether you qualify, please email us at northlawndalefresh@freshtaste.org.
Questions?
General questions or help with the online application system:
Vanessa Reese, Fresh Taste, northlawndalefresh@freshtaste.org
Specific questions about projects may be directed to any of the partner foundation representatives:
Lenore Beyer, Director of Conservation Initiatives, Kinship Foundation,
Lenore.beyer@kinshipfoundation.org
Monique Bobb Schlichtman, Senior Program Officer- Chicago, The Lumpkin Family Foundation,
monique@lumpkinfoundation.org
Haven Leeming, Senior Program Officer, The Builders Initiative, hleeming@buildersvision.com
Yolanda Knight, Managing Director, yknight@fic-sff.com
Chuck Wolf, President, Walter Mander Foundation, cbw921@gmail.com or Cassandra West:
cwest@waltermanderfoundation.org

Call for Ideas 2024 Guidelines & FAQs
Online Application System FAQs
How do I use the online application system?
• If you are a previous applicant or grantee of North Lawndale Fresh (or Austin Fresh or CRFSF) —
log in to the online application system using your existing account and password.
• If this is your first time applying for a grant from North Lawndale Fresh (or Austin Fresh or
CRFSF), go to the online application system, create a new account, and set up your password.
The confirmation email to finish setting up your account will be sent to you from “Forefront
administrator@grantinterface.com.” Be sure to check your junk and spam folders.
o We’re an organization applying for funding through a fiscal sponsor. How do we
register and apply?
You will register as your organization and include the fiscal sponsor name in
parentheses. For example: Fresh Taste (Forefront). The registration form includes fields
for providing your fiscal sponsor information.
• TIP: Centralized user accounts: Some organizations prefer to set up a centralized user email in
the online system (like grants@XYZ.org) so that multiple staff members can access all the
applications and reports using the same account information.
• To invite someone to work on the application with you: use the “Collaborate” button on the
top right of your application page and follow the instructions.
• If you don’t know your password, please select the reset password link on the login screen.
Your user name is the email you used to create your account. If you don’t know which email you
used, contact northlawndalefresh@freshtaste.org .
Can I log out of the online application system and return to my grant request at a later time? Does the
online system automatically save my work as I go?
The system autosaves each time you click into a new question, but if you are not ready to submit your
application it is advisable to save your work before logging out to ensure no information is lost. Select
the “Save” button in the bottom right-hand corner. (Some applicants find that it’s easier to type out
answers in a separate Word document and then copy/paste into the online system before submitting.)
You can save your draft request in the bottom right corner of the application. Once saved, you can
return at any time to complete your request by looking for your draft in the “Active Requests” section.
Look for the “Edit Application” link to the right. Do not begin a separate application every time you log
in. When a funding round closes, all applications still in “draft” status will be marked as ‘abandoned.”
Example of the “Save” and “Submit” buttons

Call for Ideas 2024 Guidelines & FAQs
I added the wrong document to my grant request or report. How do I remove it and add the correct
one?
If you’re still in draft form, you can remove the attachment and reattach different documents. If you
notice an error after you have submitted your application, please email
northlanwdalefresh@freshtaste.org to let us know, and we’ll work with you on the correction
I accidentally started multiple drafts of a grant request. How do I remove the ones I don’t need?
To edit drafts you have already started, click Edit next to the draft on your dashboard rather than
returning to the Apply page and starting over. To avoid starting multiple requests in the future, please
check your active requests folder before beginning a new request and be sure to save your request as
you go. When a funding round closes, all non-submitted applications still in “draft” status will be marked
as “abandoned.”
How can I be sure I’ve submitted my application?
First, when you’re done editing, always “Save” your request using the button at the bottom. Saving
ensures you can return to our application and continue editing. When your application is complete, be
sure to click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the page. Once you submit, you’ll receive a
confirmation email. You can also log into the online application system, look to the “Active Requests”
section. A submitted application will have a link that says “View” rather than “Edit.”
How do I download a copy of my application for my records?
While you are logged-in and viewing your application look for the “Application Packet” button and
follow the instructions unique to your browser. The process is the same for any follow-up documents
including grant agreements and reports.