Meet the 14 Winners of the 2026 Food Justice for Kids Prize

We're thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2026 Food Justice for Kids Prize, a $1.4M prize pool we're funding alongside Newman's Own Foundation, The Henry P. Kendall Foundation and the Hunger to Health Collaboratory.

The Prize is focused on advancing Indigenous food justice, nutrition education and improving access to healthy school meals for kids living in the United States. 14 US non-profits, Tribes, schools and school districts will receive up to $100K over two years to help kids learn about healthy food, eat nutritious school meals and engage with Indigenous foods.

"The Food Justice for Kids Prize supports innovative leaders and organizations growing the next generation of food citizens,"

said Alex Amouyel, President and CEO of Newman's Own Foundation.

"We're honored Humanitix, The Henry P. Kendall Foundation, and the Hunger to Health Collaboratory joined the Prize to advance food justice and child nutrition for all."

A Record Year for the Prize

More than 1,000 organizations applied for the 2026 Prize, nearly double the number for the inaugural prize in 2024. More than 125 external reviewers helped choose the new cohort, alongside our very own Humanitix staff. The reviewers represented different communities, lived experiences, issue areas and sectors.

"This year's applicant pool revealed a nationwide need for more funding and resources to support this important work, and it also showcased the incredible amount of passion, commitment, and resourcefulness that's making a difference in schools and communities across the country every day,"

said Adam McCurdie, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Humanitix.

Pierce Coady, US Partnerships Lead at Humanitix who participated in the application review process from start to finish, said:

"What was really humbling was witnessing how much these organizations care about the communities that they directly serve."

Reflecting on the review process, Avery Gigoux, Success Specialist at Humanitix, said:

"I was surprised at how in-depth the applications were, and the amount of work put in. It felt incredibly rewarding to be part of assessing these deserving organizations."

What stood out to Logan Daws, Business Development Representative, was:

"What all of the organizations that I got to review had in common was their autonomous approach. They're teaching kids how to have agency. It's not just telling them to buy these things at the grocery store and eat your veggies, it's like no, you can actually take control of your life. You can grow your own food, you can help your community, you can give away these foods to your neighbors. I really liked this overarching message that was being conveyed by these different organizations through their programs."

Sally Walker, Success Specialist at Humanitix, also noted:

"This whole experience really reminded me that the work we're doing here at Humanitix has a huge impact on the world around us. It was such an honor to think about the lives that could potentially be changed through this grant."

2026 Food Justice for Kids Prize Winners

This year's cohort at a glance:

• 12 non-profit organizations and 2 federally recognized Tribes
• 2 organizations working nationally, 4 at the state level and 8 locally
• Organizations from 12 different states

Indigenous Food Justice Recipients

Hoʻokuaʻāina, Kailua, HI

Hoʻokuaʻāina began in 2007 as a place where young people and their families could heal and reconnect with their ancestral roots. They run a taro farm on Oʻahu where kids and youths learn to farm the traditional Hawaiian way. School groups visit to work in the taro patches, and young people who are struggling can join a mentoring program on the farm to provide direction to those looking for a place to belong and find purpose.

One Spirit, Pine Ridge Reservation, SD

One Spirit gets food to Lakota families on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where fresh food can be hard to find. It runs food pantries and a youth center, and it teaches people how to grow their own food in community gardens and greenhouses.

RurAL CAP, Anchorage, AK

The Rural Alaska Community Action Program has served communities across Alaska since 1965. It helps people in remote Alaskan communities grow and harvest their own food. It gives local growers training and funding, and it runs farm-to-school activities that bring locally grown food and gardening into Anchorage schools.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Cooperative Extension, Cherokee, NC

For more than 25 years, Cherokee Extension has worked with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to strengthen local food systems, develop young leaders and protect Cherokee culture. Through its youth gardening program, hundreds of young people receive gardening kits each year and learn about the cultural history of Cherokee plants and foods.

Yurok Tribe, Klamath, CA

The Yurok Reservation has very few places to buy healthy food, so the Tribe started growing its own. In 2020 it bought a 40-acres for a food security farm next to a local elementary school and the Tribe's Head Start (early childhood education center), with plans to use it as an outdoor classroom where kids learn to grow and harvest traditional foods.

Nutrition Education and School Food Recipients

Good Food Collective, Durango, CO

Good Food Collective is building a just and resilient food system in Southwest Colorado. It was one of eight groups that designed and helped pass Colorado's Healthy School Meals for All which resulted in free school meals for every student in Colorado, and it now helps put the program into practice. It also connects local farmers with schools so kids eat food grown nearby, like green chiles from a local farm.

Pilot Light, Chicago, IL

Chicago chefs founded Pilot Light in 2010 to connect what students learn in the classroom with the food on their lunch trays, at home and in their communities. It has reached more than 146,000 students and 2,400 teachers in 26 states. Its Classroom to Cafeteria program brings teachers and school food professionals together to teach students about school meals.

Center for Good Food Purchasing, Berkeley, CA

The Center for Good Food Purchasing uses the purchasing power of large institutions to build a fairer food system. It helps big school districts including Los Angeles Unified, Chicago Public Schools and Boston Public Schools buy better food for school meals, so they can buy more local, healthy and sustainably produced food and to support fair treatment of food workers. The program puts local economies, environmental sustainability, a valued workforce, animal welfare and community nutrition at the center of how school meals are sourced.

ChangeLab Solutions, Oakland, CA

ChangeLab Solutions is a nonpartisan non-profit that uses law and policy to advance health equity. Its school wellness work gives districts practical tools to create healthier school environments, from better access to drinking water to limits on marketing unhealthy food to students.

FoodRight, Milwaukee, WI

FoodRight empowers young people to choose foods that support lifelong health. It partners with Milwaukee Public Schools to deliver gardening and cooking-based nutrition education led by registered dietitians and public health experts. Its Good School Food Project brings culturally relevant, student-approved meals into cafeterias and trains parents to advocate for healthier school food.

Green Umbrella, Cincinnati, OH

Green Umbrella brings people and organizations across Cincinnati together to work on environmental issues, including food. In 2015 it launched the Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council, which brings partners together to build a regional food system that is environmentally, socially and economically resilient.

Grow Windham, Willimantic, CT

Grow Windham cultivates intergenerational spaces that center youth to grow and build their power to problem solve and create new opportunities in Windham.‍ They use the garden as a hub to address systemic barriers, where youth are responsible for building community, leading projects, and taking action to accomplish their visions. Its Windham Youth CORE program pays high school students to run food projects in their community. Along the way, students learn leadership and job skills while helping more people access healthy food.

La Colaborativa, Chelsea, MA

La Colaborativa supports Latinx families in and around Chelsea, and it gives more young people jobs than any other organization in the city. Through its Promoters of Health program, teens teach their peers and families about preventive health, including how a healthy diet and exercise can help prevent and manage conditions like diabetes.

Plant Powered School Meals Coalition, Orlando, FL

The Plant Powered School Meals Coalition works to expand plant-based options in K-12 schools across the country. Its Plant Powered Youth Fellowship brings together students to advocate for healthier, climate-friendly school meals, and many of them rely or have relied on free and reduced-price school meals. Fellows have met with elected officials and the USDA in Washington, DC.

What's Next for the 2026 Cohort

Recipients will be recognized at the H2HC 2026 Fall Summit in Boston this November. Throughout the year they can also join Newman's Own Foundation's virtual learning sessions and meet with fellow non-profits, Tribes and schools to share best practices and learn from one another.

"For the applicants $100K was a significant sum of money and money is really important to fund their work, but they were also interested in the opportunities they will have to learn from other nonprofits in this space,"

noted Pierce Coady. The cross-learning opportunities that arise from bringing these excellent organizations together mean accelerated progress in culturally relevant nutrition education, youth development, local school food procurement and climate-friendly school meals. We can't wait to see what they will achieve!

Tickets for Good, Not Greed

Humanitix is a ticketing platform that dedicates 100% of its profits to charity. Every booking fee paid on Humanitix helps fund work like this, giving kids access to education, healthcare and nutritious food.

This year's Prize is a collaboration between Humanitix and Newman's Own Foundation, The Henry P. Kendall Foundation and the Hunger to Health Collaboratory.

Congratulations to all 14 recipients!