Chicago Food Policy Action Council
Chicago, IL · EIN 30-0626664. Reported 66 grants totalling $5,008,482 to 53 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Chicago Food Policy Action Council, the IRS classifies it under food & nutrition rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE K05) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 53 distinct organizations, with 36% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 36% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $46,250. Half of what it reported fell between $34,000 and $78,500; the smallest was $7,500 and the largest $823,263. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chifresh Kitchen Cooperative | Chicago, IL | $1,781,713 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Opencollective Foundation | Covina, CA | $336,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Food Hero L3C | Chicago, IL | $180,040 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Centro De Trabajadores Unidos | Chicago, IL | $145,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Urban Growers Collective Inc | Chicago, IL | $138,600 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Mother Carr's Farm | Lynwood, IL | $120,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Real Foods Collective | Maywood, IL | $111,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Fresher Together | Chicago, IL | $95,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Ditto Foods LLC | Mokena, IL | $90,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| North Lawndale Greening Committee | Chicago, IL | $87,500 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Adelante Center for Entrepreneurship | Waukegan, IL | $82,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Chicago Urban Farm Solutions LLC | Chicago, IL | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Hope Center Clc Nfp | Blue Island, IL | $80,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Grace United Church of Christ Sauk Village | Sauk Village, IL | $79,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Evanston Grows | Evanston, IL | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Eighteenth Street Development Corp | Chicago, IL | $71,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Sugar Arts Workshop | Chicago, IL | $65,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Chicago Urban Farm Solutions | Chicago, IL | $64,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Southside Market Co-Op | Chicago, IL | $62,454 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Brownstone Farms | Pembroke Township, IL | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Cornerstone Community Development Corp | Ford Heights, IL | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Roots & Vine Food Hub | Park Forest, IL | $60,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Byp 100 Chicago | Chicago, IL | $56,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Zumwalt Acres Farm | Sheldon, IL | $54,625 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| 6IX-Cess Foods Lwca | Chicago, IL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Cogro Biodynamic Growers LLC | Chicago, IL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Laos to Your House Inc | Chicago, IL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Otter Oaks Farm | Chicago, IL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Grow Greater Englewood Inc | Chicago, IL | $47,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Citadelle Green Mountain | Chicago, IL | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Little Village Environmental Justice Organization | Chicago, IL | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Sunflower Soule Farm LLC | Chicago, IL | $44,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Phoenix Bean LLC | Chicago, IL | $42,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| American Indian Center | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Just Roots | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Southland Development Authority Nfp | Tinley Park, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Windy City Mushroom | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Wood St Collective | Chicago, IL | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Kenwood Oakland Community Organization | Chicago, IL | $38,400 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Centro De Trabajadores Unidos United Workers Center | Chicago, IL | $34,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Health Policy Institute | South Chicago, IL | $34,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Upsidedown Consulting LLC | Chicago, IL | $33,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Midwest Foods | Chicago, IL | $32,400 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Black Oaks Center | Chicago, IL | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum | Grand Rapids, MI | $28,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Southside Market and Cafe Cooperative | Chicago, IL | $24,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Housing Helpers Inc | Maywood, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Latin Center | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Puerto Rican Cultural Center | Chicago, IL | $16,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Zumwalt Acres - V | Sheldon, IL | $14,250 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois | Urbana, IL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Cultivate Kansas City Inc | Kansas City, MO | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Los Brown Berets | Joliet, IL | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
8 of 53 (15%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Chifresh Kitchen
CCHD Grant Award less fiscal sponsor fee, and Chicago Regional Foos System Fund grant award less fiscal sponsor fee - Centro De Trabajadores Unidos
Pass through to Chi Meals and from Builders - Mother Carr's Farm
2024 Community Fund grant disbursement - Real Foods Collective
2024 and 2025 Community Fund disbursements; GFPI Emergency Meal Funding - Urban Growers Collective
Combination of Pass Through Funding/SubGrantees from other awards - Chifresh Kitchen Cooperative
2025 Community Fund Grant Disbursement
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 15 of 53 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 14 | $1,584,663 | $43,750 |
| 2022 | 3 | $687,750 | $177,500 |
| 2023 | 9 | $424,750 | $34,000 |
| 2024 | 13 | $726,069 | $45,000 |
| 2025 | 27 | $1,585,250 | $50,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
93% of its giving went to organizations in Illinois. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $46,250 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Illinois.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Chicago Food Policy Action Council's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: 231 S Lasalle St 2100-005, Chicago, IL, 60604.
EIN 30-0626664 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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