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For Funders & OfficialsRole Guide

ForFunders & Officials

Move serious capital. Rewrite the rules.

Food justice can't run on passion and unpaid labor alone. Funders and city officials hold the levers that determine whether a community-led pilot becomes a regional system. This guide breaks down how to align dollars, contracts, and policy behind the work residents and growers are already doing.

ResidentsGrowersCreativesFunders & Officials
By the numbers

Why this matters in St. Louis.

The numbers behind the role you're stepping into — and the change your seat at the table can move.

01
$1.2B
annual food spend

across St. Louis institutions — schools, hospitals, universities. Redirecting even 10% locally would transform the region.

02
8
principles

guide the platform — every dollar and every ordinance can be tested against them.

03
6
pillars

to align procurement, zoning, and grantmaking around. Pick your lever and lead.

Your moves

A breakdown of what you can do.

Each action below explains the what, the how, and a first step you can take this week.

01

Anchor a co-governed food equity fund

What it means

A pooled, public-private-philanthropic fund — co-governed by residents — that finances community-owned food businesses, infrastructure, and pilots. Co-governance ensures dollars move at the speed of trust, not bureaucracy.

How to do it
  • Convene a 12–18 month design table with residents, growers, banks, and philanthropy.
  • Anchor with a 5–7 year commitment ($5M+) to signal long-term capital.
  • Build the governance board with majority resident representation.
  • Track outcomes against the platform's 8 guiding principles, not just dollar throughput.
02

Direct procurement to local farms and producers

What it means

Procurement is the most powerful, least flashy lever a city has. Every cafeteria, hospital meal, and event catering contract is a chance to recycle public dollars into local Black, Brown, and immigrant-owned farms.

How to do it
  • Set a Good Food Purchasing baseline: % of food spend that must be local, sustainable, fair, humane, and nutritious.
  • Issue contracts in pieces small enough that small farms can bid (don't bundle into million-dollar RFPs).
  • Require disaggregated reporting — who actually got paid, broken down by ownership.
  • Pre-finance growers so they can plant against your contract, not chase reimbursement.
Good Food Purchasing Program
03

Adopt the Food For All Platform as a regional alignment tool

What it means

Cities, counties, and foundations rarely fail for lack of strategy — they fail for lack of alignment. Adopting the platform formally as your strategic lens means grants, ordinances, and partnerships are tested against the same six pillars.

How to do it
  • Pass a council resolution adopting the platform as a regional reference framework.
  • Have your grants office score applications against the 6 pillars and 8 principles.
  • Co-publish annual progress reports with Food City and partner orgs.
04

Pass zoning that welcomes grocers, growers, and mobile vending

What it means

Outdated zoning is a quiet killer of food access. Permits for sidewalk vending, mobile markets, urban livestock, and corner-store grocers should be cheap, fast, and locally administered.

How to do it
  • Audit current zoning for barriers to mobile and pop-up food retail.
  • Pass a Healthy Food Financing ordinance that fast-tracks corner-store conversions.
  • Allow ag use as of-right in residential zones for parcels under a defined size.
05

Stand up a citywide Food Policy Council with real authority

What it means

Most food policy councils are advisory only. A FPC with budget authority, sunset reviews of food-related ordinances, and a permanent staffed seat in the mayor's office can actually move the system.

How to do it
  • Charter the FPC by ordinance, not by executive memo.
  • Fund a full-time staff director and resident stipends.
  • Give the FPC formal review power over food-related contracts and zoning changes.
Vocab

Speak the language.

Words that show up in food-system rooms — defined plainly, so you walk in ready.

Co-Governance
A decision-making model where directly impacted residents share authority — not just input — with funders and officials.
Procurement
The contracts and rules institutions use to buy goods. 'Local procurement' steers public dollars to local producers.
Good Food Purchasing
A national policy framework rating institutional food spend across local economy, environment, workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition.
PRI / MRI
Program-Related and Mission-Related Investments — below-market or risk-tolerant capital from foundations, ideal for community food infrastructure.
Healthy Food Financing
Public funds + tax incentives that reduce the cost of opening grocers, mobile markets, and food businesses in underserved areas.
Civic Infrastructure
The relationships, councils, and shared agreements that let institutions and residents make decisions together over time.
Disaggregated Data
Spending and outcome data broken out by race, ownership, and geography — so 'local' doesn't quietly mean the same three vendors.
Catalytic Capital
Patient, flexible, risk-tolerant funding that unlocks larger conventional investment behind it.
Pillars you move

This role advances:

Fund More →Access More →Earn More →Know More →
One table. Many seats.

Ready to take your seat?

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