Funding Food Systems into 2030
One of the most critical issues we face in reducing diet-related disease is what I call “funding the foods.”
How do we sustainably pay for healthier choice foods and the education needed to help people choose them?
Impact funding can be defined very simply. I love the way the Philadelphia Inquirer described the model: “Sell something — earn revenue — finance social impact.”
The article describes how a healthy-food truck operates as a commercial business. Instead of depending entirely on grants, donations, or volunteers, the business generates revenue through sales and uses that economic activity to help fund its social mission.
In this case, that model helped “fund the foods” to the tune of 45,000 meals.
This isn’t simply an idea for the future. Earned-revenue models are already being adopted to finance social impact. The opportunity now is to expand their use across the food system—creating sustainable revenue that can help pay for healthier foods, food education, and the people doing the work.
Can we build businesses that generate the revenue needed to help solve the food-system problems they were created to address?
Chef Mikey’s “Funding the Foods” — Top 3
#1 — Sell Something. Earn Revenue. Finance Social Impact.
Your Philadelphia healthy-food-truck example and the 45,000 meals.
#2 — Moving Beyond Grants in Food Is Medicine.
The August 10 story about organizations establishing reimbursement revenue rather than continually chasing grants.
#3 — Toni Townes-Whitley / Business as a Force for Social Impact.
Use Toni as the broader business voice supporting the movement toward businesses generating both economic and social value.
