When it comes to supporting communities, there is always more to do. The pandemic brought an increased focus to issues that have long been a challenge to the daily lives of many Americans, such as nutrition access, affordability and education. 

That’s why we launched a partnership between the African American Mayors Association (AAMA) and the American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America (Foundation) in which five cities with African American mayors will receive significant grants to advance essential programs that improve community health. Mayors can apply the funds towards vital resources such as community gardens, mobile vegetable and fruit stands and food security programs, and attract additional investments for the nutrition issues their cities are facing.

Funds from the program go directly toward city programs that demonstrate measurable progress in increasing access to affordable basic nutrition needs, educational components that help market the program to a mayor’s community, provide community outreach or help educate citizens about the benefits of the program and towards programs with an initial investment that will attract matching grants or other investment dollars.

At the 2024 AAMA Annual Conference five grants totalling $600,000 were awarded to cities and programs in different population categories.

Large City:

• Baltimore, Md., for the Baltimore City Produce Box Distribution Program

Medium Cities:

• Little Rock, Ark., for increasing nutrition education and access with the Community School Model
• Richmond, Va., for the Richmond School Garden Fund, through Greater Richmond Fit4Kids

Small Cities:

• Mount Vernon, N.Y., for the Mount Vernon Living Healthy Community Program
• North Miami, Fla., for the NoMi Food Pantry Program

 

Learn more about the grant program here.