JewelOsco
Dear Nourishing Neighbors Family,
We are pleased to inform you of our upcoming Request for Proposal (RFP) for Breakfast for Kids during the summer season. As part of our annual breakfast campaign, we have made a significant change in timing and moved it from September to the summer season. Please note that this campaign will be fully funded by the company, and we will not be conducting any fundraising activities in our stores for this grant.
We cordially invite your organization to apply for funding consideration based on the exceptional work you do in the communities we serve. Please note that this round of funding is exclusively focused on breakfast for kids, as we strongly believe that every child has the right to a healthy breakfast. Our focus this year is on summertime breakfast. While this grant is not limited to summertime breakfast programs, we are giving priority to those programs that are feeding breakfast to kids this summer.
To achieve our goal of providing over 70 million more breakfasts to children in need in 2023, we are seeking partners in the areas where we operate stores to collaborate with us. The grant period for this grant is June- August 2023. The grant amount for this opportunity typically ranges between $5,000 to $10,000.
We welcome applications from eligible programs, including, but not limited to:
- Programs providing families with food (food banks) specific to breakfast foods for kids during the summer
- Programs providing resource/educational materials for parents/families
- Backpack programs that provide kids with breakfast foods for the weekend
- Programs that increase the number of sites serving breakfast for out of school times
- Programs that increase the nutritional content of breakfast programs
- Programs that increase enrollment in school breakfast
- Programs implementing best practices in school breakfast
Please note the following important details:
- Here is your invitation link to the application: https://ahungeris.versaic.com/login [PLEASE NOTE- the link to apply for the breakfast grant is separate from the other nourishing neighbors grants. Please make sure that you fill out the right application.]
- Applications must be submitted by Monday, April 24, 2023, to be considered.
- Applications will only be considered for organizations working in counties where we have stores. Please see the attached list of counties where we operate.
- Organizations must be a 501c3 designated charitable organization or a K-12 school.
We kindly request that you provide as much detail as possible on how you would plan to use the funding if your organization is selected.
We plan to announce the grant recipients of the grants by the end of May, and we expect the funds will be available in the first week of June. Please see a list of FAQs below. Hopefully, we have answered most of your questions here. Considering the large number of organizations, we are reaching out to, we request that you send any further inquiries through email. However, if you require further clarification or assistance, we would be happy to arrange a call to address your concerns.
Thank you for the invaluable work you do in providing nutritious breakfasts to children in need during the summer season.
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FAQs
- What kind of programs qualify for this grant?
A: If your proposed program is helping kids access or eat breakfast that they didn’t have before, then you are qualified to apply for this grant. If not, then we thank you for everything you do, but this might not be a good fit. This year, we also have a focus on summertime breakfasts.
Q: What makes up a meal?
A: We consider 3 items or 1.2 pounds of food as one meal.
Q: How do you define breakfast?
A: We define breakfast as the first meal eaten in the day. For some, that’s as early as 4:00 in the morning and for others not until 10:00 or later.
Q: What is a breakfast food? We find that our population likes non-traditional breakfast foods for breakfast.
A: We define breakfast as the first meal of the day. Different cultures and different people eat different kinds of food for breakfast. If the food you are providing is eaten as the first meal of the day before any activities (school etc.), then we would consider it breakfast food.
Q: We’d like to apply for your funding to support our backpack program. Can we do this?
A: Yes, but we will only evaluate those meals that are breakfasts. For example, if your backpack is intended to cover 6 meals over the weekend and 2 of them are breakfast, you can only “count” the 1/3 of the meals.
Q: Does this grant focus only on breakfast? My organization does other things too.
A: Yes, the metrics we will ask you to provide will be solely focused on breakfast. While we are grateful for all you do in our neighborhoods, the focus of this grant cycle is on breakfast.
Q: We are an organization that serves dinner to seniors, do we qualify for this RFP?
A: We appreciate all you do, but no. This grant is specifically targeted to ensure that all kids have access to breakfast.
Q: I have a program that teaches families how to make breakfast, will this qualify?
A: It could. If you could establish a baseline prior to your intervention of how many of those kids were eating breakfast and can show that after your program those kids are now eating breakfast, then your program would qualify.
Q: Is it better to apply for the program we have been funded for previously or should we consider applying for a new program?
A: The decision is entirely at your discretion. We suggest that If the program is effective and requires further funding, it may be beneficial to continue with the current program. However, If you wish to explore something new or believe that the current program has run its course, then a new program might be better. We encourage you to apply for the program that aligns best with your organization’s goals and objectives.
Q: Would a research grant/survey qualify?
A: Yes, this is within scope if it is focused specifically on breakfast.
Q: Would the purchase of healthy breakfast foods for my program qualify under this grant?
A: Yes, this is within scope.
Q: Are grant award funds able to be re-granted to community partners? Example, if we wanted to increase access to breakfast programs and could offer schools and summer feeding programs a small grant to start or expand their breakfast program.
A: Yes, we do consider re-granting applications.
Q: Do you allow funds for lobbying activities?
A: We consider lobbying activities on a case by case basis. We prefer to fund tools to help with communication to elected leaders rather than direct lobbying expenses.
Q: If we decide to apply to do an evaluation/research grant what are the metrics you would look for if we’re not trying to increase breakfast participation?
A: The metrics we track are: # of breakfasts, cost per breakfast and # of unique kids receiving breakfast. We would highly recommend an application that fits within that scope.
Questions Regarding RFP Process and Mechanics
Q: What is the time period of the grant?
A: June – August 2023
Q: Is there an Impact Genome portion of the application this year?
A: No, the questions are integrated into the Versaic application.
Q: What is the timeline for when I will know if my application was selected?
A: Here’s a basic outline for timing:
- Proposals due on Monday, 4/24
- Winners announced by 5/19
- Checks sent by 5/31
Q: My email doesn’t work and I wasn’t sent a password. Can you set up a new account for me?
A: Each grant writer at each organization will need to set up an account. Please select the
“create account” button to create a new account.
Q: We are working state-wide and our work encompasses all schools in our state. Which areas do I select?
A: If your organization is working in all areas in a state, please select all stores in that state where there are kids that will benefit from your work.
Q: How do I define my area?
A: Your area is the geographic area where the people you serve live. To determine if a store is encompassed by your work, we typically use a 5-mile reach outside of our stores. However, we recognize that this distance doesn’t make sense in some rural areas. Here’s how we think about it: If your project is working with people who have our stores in their consideration set for where to shop, we would consider you working in our neighborhood.
Q: Should our work focus narrowly on the five communities that have stores or can we focus on a broader region/statewide (which would include those communities)?
A: Our funding is specifically meant to benefit the areas where we have stores. As much as possible, please propose projects that will benefit those areas.
Q: I’m not finding my stores in the store list, what can I do?
A: Try filtering by county and double check that you do not have any filters active. If all else fails, throw out the spreadsheet you have on your desktop currently and open the one from my email again. I have double checked, and all active stores are listed.
Q: We are a national organization that covers all your stores. Should we select every store?
A: You can, but we don’t recommend it. We recommend that you select a specific geographic area where you have a stronghold and concentrate your application on that area. A good guide is to use the “division” filter on the spreadsheet and select one single area.
Questions Regarding Nominations:
Q: We were nominated by several national organizations and will select one. What is the benefit of selecting one over the other?
A: This is completely up to you. If you select a national organization, your funds will come directly from them. Other organizations prefer to work directly with us and receive their check directly. Either way, you will receive 100% of the funds raised for your organization.
Q: I received several emails including this one with different partners listed – why?
A: If you received several emails, then you have been nominated by several groups. There will be a field on the application to let us know who nominated you. The nominating organization will be overseeing your funding. If you prefer to work with one organization over another, please select the one you wish to work with. If you are agnostic as to which to select, please list all groups that nominated you on that line and we will work to determine which organization will be overseeing your grant.
Q: What is the overhead allotment?
A: These funds are for your organization to use as you see fit. We calculate our contribution based on your total budget for the program and the total number of breakfasts provided.
Therefore, we believe your organization knows best how to allocate funds provided and will ask you to do that without mandating a specific overhead allotment.
Additional Advice:
Q: On the attachments, it asks for any additional attachments. What’s best here?
A: Stories, stories, stories! Our stores love to read stories about how the funds raised are being used in their community.
Q: What are some programs that you love?
A: We love all of our programs! We feel that the strength of this program is in the diversity. There are many tactics that organizations use across the US to address ensuring that kids have access to breakfast and we love them all.
Q: Should we include heartstring stories in our application?
A: YES! We love stories and hearing all about what you do in our neighborhoods. As I share your work with our employees from the Division level to the store, stories are some of the best ways to engage them in your work.
Q: I received funds for the recent Nourishing Neighbors grants. Can I still apply for this?
A: Yes, we consider this a separate program.
Q: Can I set up a time to call you and go over my application before I submit?
A: Unfortunately, no. I wish I could, but we have invited hundreds of organizations to apply across the country and we simply cannot speak to each group individually. However, please be rest assured that we will carefully review your application and contact you if we require any additional information or clarification.
Thank you again and we look forward to reading each of your applications.