Brooklyn nonprofits can apply for $4,000 healthy eating grants through Dec. 7

Nonprofits in Brooklyn can now seek $4,000 in matching funds for health and nutrition education programs through a new Healthy Eating Grant from Borough President Antonio Reynoso. Applications are open until Dec. 7, 2026.

The idea came from Reynoso’s 2025 Youth Advisory Council. Its 20 members, all eleventh and twelfth graders in the city’s public school system, look into problems facing the borough and draft policy proposals to fix them.

What the Brooklyn Healthy Eating Grant pays for

Funded programs should reach across the borough and help young Brooklynites and their families make informed choices about food. Classes, workshops, events, cooking instruction and other community projects can qualify, as long as they teach nutrition and health or deal with food sovereignty and food equity.

Groups working in neighborhoods where food insecurity runs high will get priority. The borough president’s office names Canarsie, Coney Island, Sunset Park, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Brownsville, East New York, East Flatbush and Flatbush/Midwood.

According to the office, many Brooklyn residents never get lessons in nutrition or food literacy, even though a healthier diet can improve outcomes and help manage some chronic conditions. The grant is meant to tie that kind of education to better health.

How to apply and who runs the youth council

Organizations apply through the borough president’s website. The Youth Advisory Council is a partnership with the Sadie Nash Leadership Project and the borough’s two high school superintendents, one for Brooklyn North and one for Brooklyn South. Members learn to organize around local issues.

Reynoso praised the students for taking on food insecurity and urged groups already doing this work to apply. The effort, he said, is about “giving communities the tools they need to thrive.”