Nutrition Grants 2026: 207 Funders, $15,000 Median

Nutrition source review, Grantsights, November 6, 2026: Grantsights checked the Older Americans Act nutrition sections at 42 U.S.C. 3030e (opens in a new tab) and 42 U.S.C. 3030f (opens in a new tab), the Administration for Community Living (ACL) nutrition services page (opens in a new tab), the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) statute at 7 U.S.C. 7517 (opens in a new tab) and its program page (opens in a new tab), and Public Law 119-21 (opens in a new tab) against foundation filings that name nutrition programs. Where official sources stop: no federal page tells a pantry which health foundation in its region pays for a cooking class, or who will put up the match a USDA incentive grant demands. The filings below show both.

Nutrition Grants: What 990-PF Filings Show

Across 990-PF human services filings pulled November 5, 2026, Grantsights analysis counted 207 foundations giving 364 grants to 234 nutrition programs, worth $49,149,593 in all. According to IRS guidance on Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab), the return reports a private foundation's charitable distributions and activities, so every gift here has a filed purpose line.

Four gifts dominate. The Rockefeller Foundation gave the American Heart Association $12,257,548 in 2023 and $11,800,000 in 2024 toward building evidence that health systems can scale food-is-medicine programs, and the Elevance Health Foundation gave Feeding America $4,700,000 in 2023 and $2,350,000 in 2024 for its food-as-medicine program. Those 4 grants total $31,107,548, about 63% of the national figure. They're national research and network gifts, not a model for a county program.

For a local group, the median is the number to plan around. According to the same November 5, 2026 pull, the median grant was $15,000, a quarter were $5,000 or less, a quarter were $50,000 or more, and 101 of the 364 (28%) came in at $5,000 or under. That's well above the $5,000 to $7,000 statewide human services medians in the table further down.

Counting every cause, the same match reaches 515 foundations and 1,047 grants worth $79,599,787, with a $10,000 median. Grantsights didn't hand-check that wider set, so treat it as context. Many of the added gifts were filed under health, youth or education, or with no cause tag at all.

Foundations are a real source for nutrition programs, but rarely the main one. Senior meals run on Older Americans Act money, state funds and participant contributions; school and child care meals run on USDA reimbursements; and food banks lean on individual donors and grocery partners, as grants for food banks explains. A foundation grant usually pays for the education, the dietitian, the incentive dollars or the pilot that public money doesn't cover.

5 Kinds of Nutrition Programs Foundations Paid For

Recipients in the November 5, 2026 filings fall into 5 groups. Each row below is an actual filed gift, sorted by the kind of program it paid for.

Medical meals draw many funders per program. Community Servings in Boston received grants from at least 5 foundations in the pull, including the Liberty Mutual Foundation ($75,000 in 2023 and $100,000 in 2024). Project Angel Food in Los Angeles drew 7 grants from 5 funders, worth $187,600, and Project Angel Heart in Colorado received $100,000 from the Lennox Foundation in 2024 for home-delivered meals for low-income people with severe illness.

Nutrition incentives get big multi-funder backing. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation gave Fair Food Network in Michigan $400,000 in 2023 to widen access to Double Up Food Bucks, and The Kresge Foundation gave it $200,000 in operating support the same year. The Kosasa Foundation gave The Food Basket in Hawaii $75,000 in 2024, and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation gave the Central Texas Food Bank $100,000 in 2021 for Double Up at grocery stores. The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation gave Produce Perks Midwest in Ohio $101,333 in both 2023 and 2024 to expand produce prescriptions in Franklin County.

Senior programs win steady local gifts. For example, Meals on Wheels Inc. of Tarrant County received $555,000 from 5 foundations in the pull, including $100,000 from the Paul E. Andrews Jr. Foundation in 2023. The Carol Moss Foundation gave the St. Vincent Senior Citizen Nutrition Program in Los Angeles $150,000 in 2023, and The Eleanor and J. Hunter Flack Foundation gave a Meals on Wheels program in Virginia $155,000 in 2025 for community senior nutrition.

Youth nutrition education is often paired with growing food. The Cargill Foundation gave Urban Roots in Minnesota $125,000 in 2023 and again in 2024 for fresh food and nutrition education for children and youth, and The Flatley Foundation gave the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua $100,000 in 2024 for its food and nutrition program.

Nutrition Program Grants by State

California's 38 funders lead the November 5, 2026 pull, followed by New York and Texas with 18 each. 27 states have 3 or more nutrition funders. This table counts grants by the state where the recipient sits, for the 9 states with 9 or more funders.

Texas and Illinois look huge only because the American Heart Association is filed in Texas and Feeding America in Illinois. Take out those 4 gifts and Texas falls under $1 million.

State samples in the free preview

Several states open with a strong nutrition funder in the free preview on the Grantsights human services funder list. Massachusetts's sample is the Lawrence J. and Anne Rubenstein Charitable Foundation, which takes requests and has deadlines and limits on file; it gave Community Servings $30,000 in 2024 and $40,000 in 2025 for its medical meals program. Hawaii opens with the Kosasa Foundation and Iowa with the Max and Helen Guernsey Charitable Foundation, which gave the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative $30,000 in 2024 for Double Up Food Bucks.

New York's sample, the New York Health Foundation, gave Food Pantries for the Capital District $160,000 in 2023 to widen its food-is-medicine work and gave God's Love We Deliver $140,506 in 2024 for food-is-medicine programs for veterans. Oregon opens with The Roundhouse Foundation's $20,000 in 2024 to the Farmers Market Fund for Double Up in rural Oregon. Two previews open with weak fits: Texas leads with the Texas Capital Foundation, whose sample gifts were general operating and cancer awareness grants, and South Carolina leads with a $1,500,000 Mellon gift for a heritage center and kitchens site. Read past the first name in those states.

California's nutrition funders

California's 38 foundations made 59 nutrition grants worth $3,205,438, according to the November 5, 2026 pull. The free preview for California starts with the Atkinson Foundation, which accepts requests and has its limits, what to submit and a contact on file. Its 2 sample gifts are small: $15,000 to Pie Ranch in Pescadero in 2023 for environmental and food literacy education for youth, and $10,000 to Peninsula Volunteers in Menlo Park in 2024 for Meals on Wheels and grocery nutrition services. Both recipients sit on the San Francisco Peninsula, so it reads as a local funder; a program elsewhere in California should look past it.

Larger California gifts went elsewhere. The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation gave Ceres Community Project $375,000 in 2024 to build a center making free meals for people with specific dietary needs from illness, and the George H. Sandy Foundation gave the Alameda County Community Food Bank $185,000 in 2024 for nutritious food and nutrition education. Food Literacy Center drew 5 small grants from 4 funders, worth $20,500 together.

Why the Human Services List for Nutrition Programs

Human services is the cause tag most nutrition gifts carry, ahead of education, youth and health, though many gifts in the wider count carry no tag at all. Grantsights matched 364 human services nutrition grants out of 1,047 across every cause, and those 364 are the ones checked by hand.

Nutrition gifts are one slice of each row: the figures cover all human services giving on 990-PF returns in that state, according to Grantsights analysis of filings pulled October 29, 2026. The share of funders saying they take requests runs from 21% in California to 38% in Ohio. The human services funder list opens every state at once, and if it doesn't turn up funders worth asking, a refund is yours for 30 days.

Federal Nutrition Funding in 2026: 4 Programs and Where They Stand

Federal nutrition money changed in 2025. Grantsights checked 4 programs on November 6, 2026.

1. Older Americans Act senior nutrition (Title III-C). Under 42 U.S.C. 3030e (opens in a new tab) and 3030f (opens in a new tab), ACL makes grants to states under approved state plans for congregate and home-delivered nutrition projects that serve meals 5 or more days a week (less often in some rural areas) and provide nutrition education and counseling. According to the ACL senior nutrition program page on nutrition services (opens in a new tab), local programs are also sustained by foundations, state and local governments, payments for services, participant contributions and fundraising. A provider gets this money through its state unit on aging and area agency on aging, not by applying to Washington. See grants for senior centers.

2. GusNIP nutrition incentives and produce prescriptions. According to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Nutrition Incentive notice (opens in a new tab), the round posted May 13, 2026 closed June 16, 2026, offered an estimated $36,300,000 with awards of $10,000 to $15,000,000, and required matching funds. The Produce Prescription notice (opens in a new tab) was posted June 16, 2026, closed July 16, 2026, estimated $5,280,800 in $500,000 awards, required no match, and accepted only government agencies and nonprofits. As of November 6, 2026, both closing dates had passed.

3. SNAP-Ed. Section 10107 of Public Law 119-21 (opens in a new tab), signed July 4, 2025, changed the SNAP-Ed (Nutrition Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program) funding line in 7 U.S.C. 2036a(d)(1)(F) from "fiscal year 2016 and each subsequent fiscal year" to fiscal years 2016 through 2025. That leaves no SNAP-Ed money in the statute for fiscal 2026 on. Grantsights couldn't load USDA's SNAP-Ed page on November 6, 2026, so this rests on the law's text.

4. Child and summer meals. According to USDA, the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) (opens in a new tab) pays reimbursements for meals and snacks at child care centers, day care homes, adult day care, afterschool programs and emergency shelters, and the Summer Food Service Program page (opens in a new tab) covers free summer meals for kids 18 and under. These pay for food, not for education programs; USDA food assistance grants explains how sponsors join.

What GusNIP Doesn't Tell You About Nutrition Incentive Grants

The match is the hard part. Under the nutrition incentive section of 7 U.S.C. 7517 (opens in a new tab), the federal share can't exceed 50% of the project's cost, and the non-federal share can be cash or in-kind and can come from a state or local government or a private source. Read beside the filings, that rule makes 4 points.

1. Foundation money is what makes the federal money possible. Kellogg, Kresge, Stupski, Kosasa, Guernsey and Roundhouse all paid for Double Up Food Bucks programs in the filings. A program asking USDA for $200,000 needs $200,000 more from somewhere, and these are the funders that have done it.
2. Line up the match before the notice posts. The 2026 nutrition incentive window ran about 5 weeks, from May 13 to June 16. A foundation board that meets quarterly can't approve a match letter in that time.
3. Produce prescriptions are a different bet. That notice required no match but paid one fixed award size and only to government agencies and nonprofits. A clinic partner usually has to be in the plan.
4. The SNAP-Ed gap is a fundraising argument. Groups that taught cooking and nutrition on SNAP-Ed money lost that line after fiscal 2025. Health foundations such as Mother Cabrini and Osteopathic Heritage already pay for nutrition education; a request that names the lost federal funding and the classes at risk is direct and honest.

Common Mistakes in Nutrition Grant Requests

These 6 mistakes show up in requests from a $5,000 pantry class to a $500,000 incentive program.

• Calling a food distribution a nutrition program. A common mistake is a hunger grant request with "nutrition" in the title and no teaching, screening or diet plan behind it. The hand check flagged a family food-box gift as a miss for that reason.
• Leaving out the health partner. Many of the larger local gifts involved a hospital, a clinic or a health plan's foundation. Elevance Health Foundation gave the Charitable Pharmacy of Central Ohio $125,000 in 2023 for a food-as-medicine chronic disease program built around a clinic.
• Missing the outcome. Health funders want to know what changes: blood sugar, weight, missed appointments, servings of produce. Grants for diabetes prevention programs shows how clinics report those numbers. The Duke Endowment's $90,000 to Allendale County Hospital in South Carolina in 2024 paid for a food pharmacy and a pilot, and a pilot is judged on what it changes.
• Underestimating staff costs. Dietitians, cooks and drivers cost more than the food in many programs. The Henry L. Guenther Foundation's $45,000 to the Fallbrook Senior Citizens Service Club in 2024 paid for food and staff.
• Asking a national funder first. The 4 largest gifts went to national groups, so skip Rockefeller-sized funders unless you run a national network, and apply first to regional health, bank and family foundations; see how to read a 990-PF to check each funder's usual size.
• Planning around SNAP-Ed. It's a red flag if a 2026 budget still lists SNAP-Ed money. Replace it in the plan before a funder asks.

Related Guides for Food and Nutrition Programs

Meal delivery itself has its own funders in grants for home-delivered meal programs, and the food side of a pantry's budget is covered in grants for food pantries, grants for food banks and grants for food security. Farmers markets running Double Up should also read grants for farmers markets.

Clinics and health programs pairing food with care can compare grants for diabetes prevention programs and grants for community health workers, and schools teaching nutrition through growing food will find more funders in grants for school gardens. For public money, the Grantsights grant database shows federal and state notices that are open now, sorted by state.

FAQ: Common Questions

Are there grants for nutrition programs? Yes. 207 foundations made 364 human services nutrition grants in the pull dated November 5, 2026.

How big is a typical nutrition grant? The median was $15,000, and 101 of 364 grants were $5,000 or less.

Is SNAP-Ed still funded? No. Public Law 119-21 ended its funding line after fiscal year 2025.

Who funds senior nutrition programs and Meals on Wheels? Older Americans Act money through state agencies, plus local foundations such as those behind Tarrant County's program.

Are there grants for food-as-medicine and produce prescription programs? Yes, mostly from health foundations. USDA's 2026 produce prescription round closed July 16, 2026.

Can a school get a nutrition grant? Meals run on USDA reimbursements; nutrition education usually comes through a youth nonprofit partner or a school foundation.

Sources

• 42 U.S.C. 3030e, congregate nutrition projects (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• 42 U.S.C. 3030f, home-delivered nutrition services (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• Administration for Community Living: Nutrition Services (opens in a new tab)
• 7 U.S.C. 7517, Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (U.S. Code, 2024 edition) (opens in a new tab)
• NIFA: Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (opens in a new tab)
• NIFA: GusNIP Nutrition Incentive Program notice, posted May 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• NIFA: GusNIP Produce Prescription notice, posted June 16, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• Public Law 119-21, section 10107 (govinfo.gov) (opens in a new tab)
• USDA: Child and Adult Care Food Program (opens in a new tab)
• USDA: Summer Food Service Program (opens in a new tab)
• IRS: About Form 990-PF (opens in a new tab)