Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation Announces $3M in Annual Giving, National Day of Service
The Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation announced $3 million in donations to nonprofit organizations that specialize in nutrition education and fresh food access. Funds include Neighborhood Grants that support grassroots children’s nutrition education programs, as well as large, multi-year Impact Grants designed to help partners increase organizational capacity and scale programs.
“Each year, our network of nonprofit partners continues to grow and our work in local communities continues to deepen,” said Lyndsey Waugh, Executive Director of the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation. “As a result, children and their families have greater exposure to nutrition education and hands-on cooking and gardening programs in their schools and community centers, and urban farms are increasing access to fresh, nutritious produce in food desert communities.”
This year, Sprouts will award 118 Neighborhood Grants totaling $725,000 to nonprofit organizations across the U.S. Recipients of these grants, ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, include programs in Sprouts’ new markets in Louisiana, New Jersey, and Virginia.
To culminate the nonprofit support, Sprouts and the Foundation will host the second annual Day of Service on Saturday, November 9 when hundreds of team members will participate in 40 volunteer events from coast to coast.
“Central to Sprouts’ identity is giving back to the communities we operate in, and the Day of Service gives team members the opportunity to engage with the organizations the Foundation supports firsthand,” said Waugh.
Day of Service volunteer events with 2019 grant recipients include:
- Spaces of Opportunity (Phoenix, Ariz.) – Dozens of volunteers from Sprouts’ stores, plus leadership from Sprouts’ store support office, will unite to plant, harvest and help with garden maintenance. Spaces of Opportunity, located in the heart of South Phoenix, is working to transform a food desert into a thriving hub of health and fresh food access through the coordination of a 10-acre incubator farm, family gardens, and an on-site farmers market.
The Foundation has also committed to multi-year, high-impact grants designed to help organizations scale established programs and develop and share best-practices in the areas of student nutritional curricula, and school and community gardening. This year, impact partner updates include:
- Out Teach (Phoenix, Ariz., Fort Worth, TX) Out Teach empowers teachers to get outside—beyond the classroom—to create unforgettable learning experiences and measurable academic results. In addition to funding teacher training and the direct implementation of nutrition curricula in Texas, the $150,000 grant also supports the creation of a new learning garden in Sunnyslope, Ariz. Out Teach will bring their expertise to Arizona for the first time, partnering with Sprouts to build a new learning garden at Desert View Elementary School as part of Sprouts’ Day of Service. Out Teach recently completed a three-year multi-year gift and is a returning partner.
Additional Foundation support is allocated across markets to health and wellness related causes, as well as Vitamin Angels, which delivers life-saving vitamins and nutrients to at-risk populations around the world.
Created in 2015, the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation focuses on empowering individuals, especially children, to live healthier lives by supporting programs that teach nutrition education and increase access to fresh, nutritious food. In five years, the Foundation, together with Sprouts’ vendors and customers, has donated over $10 million to more than 300 nonprofit partners. Sprouts covers 100 percent of the Foundation’s operational expenses, ensuring that every dollar raised is used to support their nonprofit partner agencies.
