Feeding Tomorrow receives $1 million endowment

Feeding Tomorrow, the official foundation of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), has announced the Elwood Caldwell Graduate Fellowship, which was created as the result of a more than $1 million endowment from IFT member Elwood Caldwell. The gift is the largest in Feeding Tomorrow’s history.

A long-standing IFT member, Caldwell firmly believed in the mission of Feeding Tomorrow, which works to bring the best and brightest minds to the science of food and to help them improve the world. Committed to the world’s next generation of professionals, Caldwell personally endorsed a full graduate fellowship when giving to Feeding Tomorrow.

“At Feeding Tomorrow, we work to support the educational endeavors of students in the science of food, and scholarships are an important tool to make learning possible,” said Kate Dockins, Feeding Tomorrow’s executive director, in a press release. “Thanks to the immense generosity of Elwood Caldwell, this fellowship is a rare opportunity for a graduate student to further their academic pursuits, and applications will open in 2021.”

As a member of the Chicago Section of IFT (CSIFT), Caldwell established the Tanner Lectureship, which brings scientific speakers to the section. With the Minnesota Section of IFT, he was responsible for the beginning and subsequent growth of Minnesota’s Suppliers Night with over 250 exhibitors. Caldwell also chaired (and raised the initial funding for) the establishment of Minnesota’s Macy Award, which recognizes an outstanding example of food technology transfer or cooperation between scientists in academia, government, and private industry.

Caldwell, who passed away in 2018, was the first recipient of the CSIFT Chairman’s Service Award and, in 1988, a recipient of a similar award from the Minnesota Section. He was a Fellow of IFT and, in 1991, was the recipient of the Calvert L. Willey award for distinguished service to the Institute.