EIT Food, the world’s largest agrifood community, will receive USD 500,000 in funding from the Citi Foundation’s first Global Innovation Challenge – a new model for philanthropic support to organizations that are developing innovative solutions to social and economic challenges facing low-income communities. EIT Food is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. EIT Food aims to pilot and expand solutions to improve food security globally. The funding will be used to kickstart the EIT Food Ample Program to co-create interventions with marginalized communities to improve access to and affordability of food. The program will involve two European cities, beginning with Madrid in October 2023.

The experience of the Madrid program will then be used to inform and create a blueprint for use in other communities, with a pilot in a second European city to be announced. It is expected that on-the-ground insights gained during this program can be used to empower other groups, cities and funding bodies to collaborate on effective interventions.

The inaugural Global Innovation Challenge is providing a total of USD 25 million to 50 community organizations working to improve food security and strengthen the financial health of low-income families and communities around the world. Each chosen organization has been granted USD 500,000 to support programs across four key areas: food access, availability, affordability and community resilience. The recipients of the grants were chosen from over 1,000 submissions across 80 countries.

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