Focus Areas
Grant Guidelines & Process
Online Letter of Intent
Table Request
United Way
Employee Matching Programs
Employee Volunteer Grant Programs

Focus Areas

To ensure the most effective use of its grant funds, the Sara Lee Foundation operates within guidelines that support nonprofit organizations with clearly defined missions and programs addressing the following areas: food-related programs (food insecurity, nutrition education, healthy and active lifestyles), women’s self-sufficiency and diversity through highly visible cultural programs (read more about the individual focus areas by following the links).

The Sara Lee Foundation does not have a specific category designated solely for sponsorship applications. It is during the review of all electronically submitted RFP’s that the Sara Lee Foundation determines which grants, spanning all focus areas, will be designated as sponsorships.

Community Spotlight

Lookingglass Theatre Company presents Ethan Frome

This smoldering world premiere adaptation of the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton is written and directed by Laura Eason, recently hailed by the Chicago Tribune as Chicago’s next breakout playwright. A deeply poetic play about passion and the irreversible choices that shape our life, Ethan Frome begins February 2011.

lookingglasstheatre.org

Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana Backpack Program

In the Sara Lee community of Harahan, LA, backpacks are stocked with nutritious, child-friendly, and easy-to-prepare items from each food group that are discretely distributed on Friday’s or the last day before school vacation. The Backpack Program ensures that children at chronic risk of hunger have enough to eat at home, so that they arrive at school on Monday mornings ready to learn. According to a recent report by Feeding America, Louisiana has the highest rate in the country of early childhood hunger; this program is one way that Sara Lee partners in our communities to address critical needs.

www.no-hunger.org

YWCA Economic Empowerment Institute Economic Empowerment Program

The New Model YWCA has successfully expanded with the launch of the Economic Empowerment Program in Chicago’s Western Suburbs. The holistic continuum approach serves each client long-term while empowerment coaches provide customized support to help clients progress toward economic empowerment and financial self-sufficiency. This continuum includes: Planning; Sustainability; Advancement; Asset Acquisition.

www.ywca.org

Teen Parent Connection

The Healthy Families program provides nutrition education to teen parents and children in the Sara Lee global headquarters community of DuPage County, IL. The health and nutrition curricula increases parents' knowledge in making healthy food choices, reinforces their role in developing healthy eating habits in children, and encourages families to adopt a healthy lifestyle and physical activity plan.

teenparentconnection.org

Utah Food Bank

Low-income seniors all too often miss meals in order to stretch their budget to pay for medical expenses, utilities, or other basic needs. Volunteers in the Sara Lee community of Salt Lake City, UT help assemble and deliver 2,600 food boxes every month. The boxes are brightly decorated by youth, and contain nutritious supplementary food for 10 – 12 days. As the need grows, so too has the Senior Food Box Program, which recently expanded beyond Salt Lake County and into Davis County.

www.utahfoodbank.org

American Indian Center

The Community Health Outreach Program addresses the nutrition, wellness and supportive needs of individuals in Chicago’s American Indian community. The Hunger and Nutrition Initiatives target specific nutrition and healthy lifestyle issues, while seeking to change the root cause of these problems through supportive services. Utilizing a culturally sensitive Four Directions of Life concept, the program addresses physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of health that are inter-related and equally important.

www.aic-chicago.org

Mi Casa Resource Center

For more than 30 years, Mi Casa has helped low-income women, particularly Latinas, begin careers with strong earning and advancement potential in the Sara Lee community of Denver, CO. With a 90% graduation rate, it helps women trade poverty for lasting economic stability, providing sector-focused career training in high-growth industries of Green Energy and Construction, and Multicultural Financial Services, and provides comprehensive supportive services.

www.micasadenver.org

Dallas Museum of Art

African Masks: The Art of Disguise, an exhibition in a Sara Lee community with four facilities, reveals the aesthetics, function, and meaning of African masks with approximately 70 objects from its sub-Saharan African collection. The African mask is a highly developed and enduring art form representing spirits, ancestors, and heroes, which are personified as human, animal, or composite beings. Because the carved wooden mask is frequently only one part of an ensemble, full masquerade costumes are displayed with photographs and films to provide additional context. The exhibition runs August 22, 2010 to February 13, 2011.

www.dallasmuseumofart.org

Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana

GirlSpace's Healthy Living curriculum engages 3,000 girls, in Chicago’s low-income south and west neighborhoods, in positive, healthy out-of-school activities. Combining self-esteem, healthy relationships, fitness and nutrition, girls are armed with knowledge to make decisions that impact their total health. Unique and effective, it helps girls develop positive self-esteem and take care of their bodies and minds, resulting in a holistically healthy life as they grow.

www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org

Growing Home

Feeding Families takes place in the Sara Lee community of Denver, CO and incorporates access and action. Its free-choice food pantry provides well-balanced and nutritious food for 400 families each month, 90% have children under 18. Combined with the action of volunteers and clients, a Community Garden is planted and harvested to provide fresh produce for the pantry. Supporters are also encouraged to "plant a row" in personal gardens for the pantry, an idea if replicated in gardens across the nation, would provide a bounty of nutritious food for many.