Sad News About Clinton Elementary FIE Program

We are very disappointed to report that we were unable to secure funding to provide our Food Is Elementary program to Clinton Elementary School for the 2010-2011 school year.  The Food Is Elementary program has been dependent on charitable funding since it's start and is not supported by any municipal funding streams. After receiving only partial funding from a grant that we had submitted to continue our work at Columbus Public Schools, we came up short of our fundraising goal and do not have the necessary resources to provide the program to the school.  

This outcome is disappointing for our team as Clinton Elementary has been a fantastic ally in our effort to educate children about healthful food and the Clinton Elementary community has been very supportive in our last two years of partnership.

This decision was not one that was made lightly, and it was not based any specific quality of the school, demographics or the school community.  We believe strongly that all children deserve the chance to form a healthy relationship to food and would like to be able to offer the Food Is Elementary curriculum to all students in greater Columbus.

Although we are not able to continue Food is Elementary programming at the school for this year, we are available to be a resource for any health and wellness work to build on the education we've brought to the students and staff for the last two years and will help to support the Clinton community in these undertakings.

Going forward, Local Matters would like to work with the Clinton Elementary staff and parent community to develop various tools for the community to help raise funds to sustain the program. A partnership with the parents and faculty is critical to formulate a long term funding strategy to ensure the return of the program.

If you know of a supporter who would like to help underwrite the Food Is Elementary curriculum at Clinton Elementary, please contact us at 614-263-5662.  Our cost for the program is $4500 per class for the 28 week curriculum (about $180 per child) which covers the cost of two food educators, all food prepared in class, and all materials.