The Kresge Foundation has awarded $5.45 million in new grant funding to the Equitable Food Oriented Development Collaborative to help transform local food systems through food enterprises led by and for the people they serve. This award builds on earlier Kresge support for EFOD’s food systems work. Together, these investments reflect the impact of EFOD’s community-led approach as it continues to grow as a national community of practice and community-led fund.

Funding will support the Collaborative in strengthening its national network of EFOD-aligned organizations across the country, share resources and create pathways for mutual learning and collective leadership of this vital approach to community-led food systems development.

Equitable Food Oriented Development, or EFOD, is a community-anchored development strategy that uses food and agriculture to create healthy neighborhoods and economic opportunities. In addition to increasing access to fresh, culturally appropriate food, EFOD explicitly seeks to build community assets, pride, and power by and with historically excluded  communities.

“While conventional food systems may unintentionally cause harm to communities through gentrification, displacement, or extraction of local resources, EFOD instead fosters strong social capital networks, equitable asset development, increased civic engagement and decreased displacement,” said Monica Valdes Lupi, Kresge Health Program Managing Director.

A key component of the Collaborative’s work is the EFOD Fund, which models an alternative approach to financing community-led, justice-first, food-based community economic development. The Fund, which invests in and supports the growth and long-term prosperity of aligned organizations, social enterprises, and businesses that build wealth and assets in disinvested Black, Brown, Indigenous and AAPI communities, has deployed more than $8.3 million to 42 organizations to date.

“We’re proud to continue our work and stand alongside frontline leaders who are building ownership and long-term stability in their communities. Especially in this political climate, supporting frontline leadership is essential to counter extractive systems that have long undermined community wealth and political agency,” said EFOD National Director Trisha Chakrabarti.

“Community-led, non-extractive investment is difficult in a capitalist system built in direct contrast to our well being. EFOD’s support has made a significant impact on our ability to build our institutions as co-owners of our own resources. This is what community self-determination looks like – cooperating together and strategizing our value systems and visions into tangible assets we can use to build a world that is for us, not against us,” said shakara tyler, board president of the Detroit Black Community Food Sovereignty Network

To learn more about Equitable Food Oriented Development, visit www.efod.org.