Partnerships and Collaborations Drive Progress

What started 35 years ago as a conduit to provide scholarship funds to the best and brightest future food scientists has evolved into a multidimensional foundation centered on three strategic promises—Motivate, Support, and Leverage. Feeding Tomorrow donors continue to be critical to the foundation’s growth and success, but recently formed partnerships and collaborations have been the impetus needed to greatly increase its impact.

One such partnership is with the Chicagoland Food Science Foundation and FONA International. Together with Feeding Tomorrow, these organizations are creating an exciting online experience for K–12 educators during SHIFT20, IFT’s virtual event and expo. The virtual 2020 Educator Expo will give nearly 100 educators, teachers, and counselors the opportunity to connect with food industry professionals, gain access to teaching resources, connect with other educators, and learn about career opportunities for their students. We are excited to bring this community together despite the pandemic’s attempt to keep us apart.

Another relationship—with the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA)—highlights how we are collaborating with educators to increase awareness of the types of careers available in the science of food. Unfortunately, the NSTA’s 2020 annual meeting (where we intended to exhibit) was cancelled this year, but we have used this as an opportunity to convert our library of K–12 teaching resources to a digital format and added distance learning resources to the mix.

Supporting future food scientists remains an important part of our mission. In the last year, we awarded 55 academic scholarships totaling $108,300 to students pursuing a degree in a variety of disciplines within the science of food. We also established the Elwood Caldwell Graduate Fellowship, which will provide a graduate student a rare opportunity to further their academic pursuits, beginning in 2021. This new fellowship is made possible by an extremely generous endowment from deceased longtime IFT member Elwood Caldwell, PhD. We are grateful for and inspired by Dr. Caldwell’s generosity.

Recognizing there is much to learn outside the classroom, we have also continued expanding our Intern+ program. In partnership with several participating food companies, the Intern+ program enables Feeding Tomorrow to offer students pursuing degrees in food science paid internships, academic scholarships, and complimentary registration to SHIFT20. Just this year, we’ve awarded six Intern+ academic scholarships.

While students are critically important to the future of food, the needs of our global community are imperative as well. The food science and technology expertise within the IFT community is unrivaled, and because of that, we have made a commitment to use our collective knowledge to benefit those in need. Enhancing the Developing Solutions for Developing Countries competition in partnership with the IFT Student Association is one way we are working toward this.

We also continue offering IFT members the opportunity to contribute expertise through our Volunteer Globally program. While we were concerned the pandemic would limit our ability to contribute in this way, several roles were changed to virtual opportunities, so our volunteers were still able to offer guidance. We also began our second fellowship in collaboration with Engineering for Change and the University of Missouri in which several engineering graduate students will support research around food processing technologies for mangos in East Africa.

They say that it is in giving that we truly receive, and we wholeheartedly believe that is true. The foundation receives great joy from all the giving we do, but none of it would be possible without the tremendous support of the IFT community. There are two ways you can help right now. Our biggest fundraiser of the year—our Fun Run + Fitness event—has transitioned to a virtual format and is currently underway. There is still time to help us fund academic scholarships for students pursuing degrees in the science of food—we hope you’ll join us in this effort. You may also consider giving to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which is committed to assisting the Chicago community with food insecurity, or make a donation to an organization in the Feeding America network in your local area.

We may not know what the future holds, but now more than ever, the future of food science needs our support and partnership. Although we may need to be flexible in our approach, our commitment to collaborating with others to bring the best and brightest minds to the science of food and help them improve the world has never been stronger. This is our mission at Feeding Tomorrow.