FoodCorps Lost Its Federal Funding. A Foundation’s Bold Bet Kept It Thriving.

It’s well known that large grants of unrestricted funding unleash creativity and give power to practitioners who are close to a nonprofit’s work. Yet as political and economic shifts have plunged thousands of organizations into financial crisis, many funders are responding with smaller gifts and tighter restrictions.

As the leaders of a nonprofit that lost its federal funding last year and a foundation that showed up to support it, we’re moving through the upheaval together in real time. One takeaway is already clear: Now is the moment to open the coffers and embrace trust-based philanthropy, because funding boldly in times of disruption is what allows social innovators to rise and meet the moment.

Government funding evaporated.

FoodCorps, a national nonprofit that advances child health through food in school, saw trouble on the horizon last spring when the Department of Government Efficiency began terminating grants at AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps had been the primary funder of FoodCorps’ education and nutrition programming for 14 years. But over the course of several months, FoodCorps’ funding was threatened, then delayed, then eliminated altogether.

FoodCorps saw individual donors turning to political giving; corporate philanthropy drying up amid tariffs, tax changes, and inflation; and justice-minded foundations moving cautiously to protect their own nonprofit status. FoodCorps convened its leaders for scenario planning and decided it would need to reduce its budget by 45 percent.

Meanwhile, the urgency of FoodCorps’ mission was only growing. Rising food prices and cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) undermined food security for millions of families. Schools and food banks lost a $1 billion Department of Agriculture fund for buying locally grown food. And federal support for nutrition education came to a halt with the end of the $540 million program SNAP-Ed.

The Healy Foundation, an Oregon- and Hawai’i-based funder that had been supporting FoodCorps’ work for 12 years, made a bold philanthropic investment in FoodCorps at the peak of the turbulence. This gift — and the generosity of other trust-based funders — let FoodCorps take risks and pursue innovation while protecting its core programs.

On May 8, 2025, as co-founder and CEO of FoodCorps, Curt spent the day in a WeWork phone booth in Portland, Ore., making Zoom calls to members of FoodCorps’ all-remote workforce. He had to explain that due to the funding cuts and organizational evolution, their positions couldn’t continue. Dozens of colleagues lost their jobs, including alumni of FoodCorps’ AmeriCorps program and staff who had been on the team for more than a decade.

That afternoon, an email popped into Curt’s inbox from Suzanne, executive director at the Healy Foundation. It was short, to-the-point, and dramatically different from the hesitant tone from most donors at the time.  

Suzanne wrote: “I will follow up with details later, but wanted to let you know the executive committee met this morning and approved your $1,000,000 request payable over four years. While we can’t replace the funds lost, we are happy to increase our support for your work as you pivot during this time.” Previously the foundation had given FoodCorps several gifts in the $20,000-to-$50,000 range. 

The Healy Foundation made its $1 million commitment based on an early concept of what FoodCorps’ pivot would look like. In a social sector that favors complexity, these two partners acted early to address loss, uncertainty, and fear head-on. A year later, FoodCorps is on a path to reaching more children than ever before.

Here’s what we learned together along the way.

Embrace risk and be open to change.

As it began scenario planning, FoodCorps’ leadership team challenged itself to let go of the past and consider what America’s 50 million kids needed from the organization now. FoodCorps pivoted, rebuilding its strategy from scratch.

It evolved its flagship program to be independent of AmeriCorps, narrowed this high-cost work from 56 communities to 15, and doubled down on its strongest districts. FoodCorps also wasn’t afraid to hire on the heels of its layoffs, bringing on a vice president of policy with a record of results at USDA and on Capitol Hill. And — in an unorthodox move — FoodCorps decided that a time of deep cuts was the time to open new lines of work.

Building on the expertise it had developed through 14 years of food education and school meal transformation powered by AmeriCorps members, FoodCorps began looking for ways to deliver its mission through leaders who were already embedded in the education systems it seeks to change.

Two new programs emerged, offering a lower-cost, more scalable way to advance FoodCorps’ core goals: student-level fruit and vegetable consumption, district-level menu change, and state and federal advocacy.

• FoodCorps created the Kindred Fellowship, which invests in rising stars who work in the school food ecosystem. The first cohort of 28 fellows are advancing scratch cooking, local sourcing, and student-driven, culturally relevant menus in their home districts. This month, they will travel to Washington, D.C., for advocacy training and a Capitol Hill Day.
• A second program, designed to help fill the void left by SNAP-Ed, trains K-5 educators to integrate lessons about food into their teaching practice. FoodCorps partnered with Teachers College at Columbia University to co-develop the Food Education in the Classroom Microcredential, an online course that draws on the expertise and networks of both institutions and earns revenue that the organizations share. 

FoodCorps’ new strategy offers a more promising path to large-scale progress in child nutrition than its previous one, and is achievable under a more efficient budget. 

The plan didn’t take shape overnight, though. FoodCorps regularly briefed its funding partners as its scenario planning unfolded, including the Healy Foundation.

Put ‘nonprofits in the lead.’

The Healy Foundation operates on a trust-based funding model and has committed to spend down its endowment by 2029, prioritizing multiyear grants of general operating support. 

As part of the sunset, the foundation launched new grant programs, including a Resilience Fund designed to move money toward recovery and emerging issues on a timely basis. When shifts in the federal and philanthropic climate devastated the nonprofit landscape, the foundation applied the architecture of the Resilience Fund to partners in its portfolio who needed to rebuild. This combination of generosity and trust carved a path forward for FoodCorps.

Too often, funders fight nonprofits for the steering wheel — running duplicative strategic planning processes, demanding lengthy grant applications, and forcing organizations to trade what’s needed for what can be funded under restriction. 

The Healy Foundation follows a different path: “Nonprofits in the lead.” Healy lets its grantees drive, and focuses on making sure there’s enough gas in the tank.

Choose trust.

When the ground shifts under our feet as it’s doing now, funders have a choice: We can respond with timidity and reach for control, or we can embrace risk, give boldly, and create the space for nonprofits to innovate. 

For the Healy Foundation, that has meant supporting good ideas quickly. For FoodCorps, it has meant starting new work at a time of harrowing change. And for kids, it has meant getting access to more of the nourishment they need to thrive.