A gift of nearly $1.6 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to the University of California, Davis, will support a national network that will focus on improving children’s access to healthy food.

The $1.57 million gift creates an endowment that will be managed by the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis to support in perpetuity the Inter-institutional Network for Food, Agriculture and Sustainability, a network of scholars from 14 universities. A primary goal of the network will be to improve food-system sustainability to advance the health of people, society and the natural environment. The Kellogg funds will enable the network to nurture a diverse corps of scholars in the early stages of their careers who will lead initiatives to address food-system challenges.

“This gift recognizes the work of leaders from across the United States, and I am gratified that my colleagues in the network have endorsed the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute as the network’s host,” said Tom Tomich, the W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems at UC Davis and director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute. “We also are grateful to the Kellogg Foundation for supporting such important work,” Tomich said.

Neal Van Alfen, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, also emphasized the gift’s importance. “UC Davis is recognized globally for its agricultural and environmental research and is a leader in scientific study of sustainability,” he said. “This investment by the Kellogg Foundation will allow us to work nationally with colleagues to identify the most critical issues in agricultural and food-system sustainability and to provide solutions toward sustainable food systems for everyone.”

The network includes scholars from Iowa State University and its Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Michigan State University, North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State University, Ohio State University, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota, University of New Hampshire, University of New Mexico, University of Vermont, University of Wisconsin and Washington State University. Additional institutions and scholars will be added in the future.

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Established in 1930, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Its grants are concentrated in the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean and southern Africa. More information about the foundation is available online at: http://www.wkkf.org.

About the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis

UC Davis’ Agricultural Sustainability Institute, founded in 2006, is committed to helping ensure access to healthy food and promoting the vitality of agriculture today and for future generations by coordinating integrative research, education and communication efforts. It includes the UC statewide Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP), the UC Davis Russell Ranch Sustainable Agriculture Facility and the UC Davis Student Farm. More information from the institute is available online at: http://www.asi.ucdavis.edu.