Food Equity and Sovereignty for Thriving Families (FEAST)

Food Equity and Sovereignty for Thriving Families (FEAST) is sponsored by Michigan Health Endowment Fund. Grant to expand culturally grounded curriculum in Tribal Head Start and home visiting programs, promoting traditional food knowledge and practices among Indigenous families.

$14 million in New Grants Bolster Supports for Behavioral Health, Food Access, and More - Michigan Health Endowment Fund $14 million in New Grants Bolster Supports for Behavioral Health, Food Access, and More Sep 3, 2025 | Access to Healthy Food , Behavorial Health Services , News , Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles , Featured , Behavioral Health , Built Environment The Health Fund Board of Directors has approved 43 new grants totaling approximately $14 million supporting projects that improve health for residents across the state of Michigan.

This includes new grant cohorts under our Behavioral Health and Nutrition & Healthy Lifestyles initiatives, plus a pair of grants aimed at strengthening the environment for health news and policymaking. Together, these investments seek to increase access to care and support better conditions for health in communities throughout the state.

Our 2025 Behavioral Health Initiative is investing $6,828,291 in 20 innovative projects aimed at increasing access to care through innovative care delivery models, multi-sector collaboration, technology improvements, and team-based approaches to care.

Grants in this year’s cohort reflected a commitment to community ownership of planned solutions, along with intentional efforts to consider the lived experience of those engaging with behavioral health care systems — and to make systems work better for those seeking care.

“Our newest grantees are building smart and strategic solutions to address challenges that prevent children, families, and older adults from accessing behavioral health support,” said Program Officer Sarah Wasil. “This includes improvements in clinical care, along with creative approaches to forge new partnerships and bring behavioral health support out into communities.

” For example, a grant to American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeast Michigan and a separate, complementary grant to the University of Michigan will support culturally aligned and community driven approaches to combat elevated suicide rates among Indigenous youth.

The former grant will equip trusted adults to recognize and respond to suicide risk and connect youth to care, while the latter will support learning circles made up of parents, elders, teachers, coaches, and tribal leaders to create whole-community strategies for youth mental health. Meanwhile, two grants to Area Agencies on Aging will support novel approaches to expand in-home behavioral health services for older adults.

NHL GRANTS AIM TO STRENGTHEN FOOD SYSTEMS, ADDRESS SOCIAL DETERMINANTS TO IMPROVE HEALTH Our 2025 Nutrition & Healthy Lifestyles (NHL) Initiative is awarding 21 grants totaling $6,813,869 to projects that expand access to nutritious food, support healthy food systems, make physical activity more accessible, and improve built environments to help communities enhance the health of their residents.

“This year’s NHL grantees are taking action to advance health equity in communities across Michigan and address the upstream needs that shape our health,” said Senior Program Officer Jan Delatorre. “The projects in this year’s cohort stood out for their ability to ignite improvements to statewide and regional systems or foster deep and meaningful local change in partnership with communities.

” Our nutrition-based grantmaking prioritizes efforts to strengthen food systems and increase food access . This includes multiple grants to help partners work across sectors and across the state to implement new Medicaid provisions that support “food is medicine” approaches to manage chronic illness through access to nutritious food.

One example: a grant to Henry Ford Health will support youth (ages 17-21) who are transitioning out of foster care to gain access to Medicaid and related nutrition resources now available through the program.

Other grants will help create statewide and regional technical assistance and supportive services to help farmers, food sellers, and community-based organizations navigate the complex systems for seeking reimbursement through Medicaid.

Meanwhile, our physical activity grantmaking continues to emphasize removing accessibility barriers to exercise for people with disabilities, while built environment investments continue to fund key processes to help local communities plan for infrastructure upgrades — such as parks, trails, and pathways — that improve community health.

SPECIAL GRANTS STRENGTHEN HEALTH NEWS , POLICY ECOSYSTEMS The Health Fund has also approved two grant investments totaling $420,000 through our Special Projects and Emerging Ideas (SPEI) Initiative. These grants will take advantage of timely opportunities to improve broader systems that influence the health of Michigan communities.

A second SPEI investment will provide mini-grants totaling $120,000 to Michigan non-profits working with the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center. Mini-grants will help these organizations engage effectively in systems change efforts related to health issues that affect their communities. These efforts advance our broader focus on elevating local voices in discussions about statewide systems.

These projects evolved from proposals shared earlier in the year and are being funded outside our standard SPEI cycle to meet strategic, time-sensitive project goals. You can find our more information about all of our grants in our searchable grants database . New grants will be added within a few days.

American Indian Health and Family Services of Southeast Michigan Michigan Tribal Communities Gatekeeper Training Initiative — $147,492 Increasing Treatment Retention for Older Adults in Detroit with Substance Use Disorders — $499,100 Improving Quality Care through Innovative Technology — $218,302 Extended Grace dba Momentum Center Friendship Bench: Pilot and Expansion — $136,200 Integrated Therapeutic Services for Detroit’s Asylum Seekers and Immigrant Community — $500,000 Grand Valley State University Healing Beyond Healthcare: Integrated Health and Social Systems for Youth at Risk or in Foster Care — $499,562 Community-based Outcome Improvement Project for Children with Autism — $500,000 Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators (MASA) [Sponsored Organization: Michigan Social Emotional Learning Alliance (MiSELA)] Survey of Social Emotional Learning Implementation to Support Behavior Health in MI Learning Settings — $160,753 Michigan Public Health Institute Building and Evaluating a Model for Rapid Maternal Mental Health Response System for Home Visitors — $499,796 Michigan State University Project THRIVE: Thriving, Healing, & Replenishing InterVention in Everyday Life for Flint Teens — $249,984 Northern Michigan Children’s Assessment Center Expanding Behavioral Health Capacity through Transitional Support — $70,386 Reaching Our Community Kids (a.

k. a.

The ROCK Center for Youth Development) Discover You TM – Expanding Peer-to-Peer Mental Health Support in the Great Lakes Bay Region — $74,800 Region IV Area Agency on Aging Integrated Behavioral Health at Home: Expanded Access, Sustainable Impact — $500,000 Region VII Area Agency on Aging Sunrise PACE Behavioral Health Focus Program — $500,000 The Regents of the University of Michigan Strengthening Community-Led Prevention: Implementing PC CARES in Michigan Tribal Communities — $416,008 The Regents of the University of Michigan Mental Health Improvement through Community Colleges: Enhancing & Scaling Capacity Building Support — $499,978 Increase Southeast Michigan Access to Substance Use Disorder & Women’s Specialty Services — $400,000 Collective Care – Circle of Support — $280,930 Expanding Local Uptake & State Policy toward Transformation of Behavioral Health Emergency Response — $500,000 Wellness Networks, Inc. dba Vivent Health Michigan Behavioral Health Program for People Living with HIV — $175,000 NUTRITION & HEALTHY LIFESTYLES GRANTS Affirmations Community Center Nutrition & Wellness Initiative — $167,942 Alger Conservation District Growing Together: Strengthening Food Access & Education in Alger County — $59,898 Boston Square Together: 3 Parks, 1 Trail, Healthier Community — $300,000 Community Food Club (Sponsored Program: Food Club Network) A Dignified Collaborative Approach to Food Access: Food Club Network and Healthcare Partnership — $500,000 Improving Michiganders’ Health: Double Up Efficiencies for Scale and Sustainability — $500,000 Food Bank Council of Michigan Fresh Food Pharmacy — $189,000 Four County Community Foundation Food Security in the Thumb Region – What More Can We Do?

— $442,748 Friends of the Detroit River The Development of On Road Bike Lanes Along West Jefferson Avenue — $433,126 Friends of the St. Clair River Bridge To Bay Trail – Rural Trail Gaps — $72,900 Foster Youth Nourish Detroit — $402,693 Improving Mobility and Connecting Vulnerable Communities to Lake St.

Clair in Macomb County — $120,000 Senior and Low-Income Residential Food Hub Project PILOT — $226,000 Michigan Department of Natural Resources Building PATHS (Polly Ann Trail Health Strategies) — $500,000 Michigan Farmers Market Association Increasing Local Food System Access and Engagement in Medicaid Food, Nutrition and Health Strategies — $500,000 Michigan State University FEAST: Food Equity and Sovereignty for Thriving Families — $500,000 The Regents of the University of Michigan Adaptive Sports & Inclusive Recreation Initiative (ASIRI): High School Expansion — $372,400 Creating and Piloting a Scalable Cooperative Community-based Food Network for Medicaid Reimbursement — $499,882 United Way of Northeast Michigan Creating an Alpena Food Co-Op — $91,354 United Way of Southwest Michigan Bridging Farmer Resilience, Food Access, and Nutrition Security — $286,523 Project SPARK: Supporting Potential, Accessibility and Resilience in Neurodiverse Communities — $500,000 Cultivating Community: A Community Centered Approach to Building the Capacity of UP Farmers — $149,403 SPECIAL PROJECTS & EMERGING IDEAS OFF-CYCLE GRANTS Expanding KFF Health News Reporting In Michigan — $300,000 Detroit URC Policy Partners Enhancing Capacity for Grantee Health Policy Efforts — $120,000 Growing Hope (Washtenaw County) Michigan Disability Rights Coalition (Statewide)