About the Prizes for Innovation
With increasingly convergent national food and health challenges, the need for successful, upstream models and solutions that advance health equity is clear. In response, the Hunger to Health Collaboratory launched its national Prizes for Innovation in 2023.
The H2HC Prizes for Innovation identify and highlight innovative food and nutrition work that offers promising, upstream models and replicable, scalable solutions that significantly advance health equity in communities throughout the U.S.
H2HC awards two $100,000 prizes annually, and prize winners are introduced at the H2HC Fall Summit.
The 2024 Prizes for Innovation were awarded to StreetCred at Boston Medical Center and The Giving Grove.
- StreetCred, based at Boston Medical Center (BMC), helps families build nutrition security through enhanced economic stability. StreetCred provides families with financial coaching, helps them access asset-building services like SNAP and WIC, and provides free assistance with tax preparation and paid family leave applications. StreetCred founded the national Health by Wealth Collective to support health systems to integrate similar services into medical settings. The Collective has grown to 36 member organizations across 13 states and since 2016 has returned more than $16.8 million to 7,700 families.
- The Giving Grove is a national network that supports community-based partners in planting and caring for fruit trees, nut trees, and berry brambles. Their work improves urban environments, increases the tree canopy, and provides sustainable sources of free, organically grown food in neighborhoods facing food insecurity. Their network of 650 orchards is growing more than 4 million servings of free, fresh food annually and re-invigorating urban green spaces. The Giving Grove is developing a 20-city network that will impact 15% of all food-insecure Americans and create sustainable, local food systems.
The Inaugural H2HC Prizes for Innovation were awarded to Alameda County Recipe4Health and DC Central Kitchen. Learn more about the winning organizations below and watch the prize ceremony here.
- Alameda County Recipe4Health is a nationally recognized, award-winning model that integrates food-based interventions into healthcare settings (Food as Medicine) to treat, prevent. and reverse chronic conditions; to address food and nutrition insecurity and other social determinants of health; and to improve health and racial equity. By sourcing the food from BIPOC organic and regenerative farmers, Recipe4Health leverages healthcare and agriculture to generate multipliers for human health, economic health, climate health, and equity.
- DC Central Kitchen is an iconic nonprofit and social enterprise that combats hunger and poverty through job training and job creation. The organization provides hands-on culinary job training for individuals facing high barriers to employment while creating living wage jobs and bringing nutritious, dignified food where it is needed most – including public schools, neighborhood corner stores, and food-insecure communities throughout the city.