Ohio · Nonprofit
FOOD STRONG
FOOD STRONG (Ohio) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $762,619 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER CLEVELAND ($200,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $577k
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $763k
- Net assets
- $404k
What Food Strong does
Mission
Our mission is to cultivate food justice in northeast ohio and beyond by building enduring local food systems from the ground up. We believe fresh, local food, like-minded residents and passionate partners can transform under-resourced neighborhoods into thriving, self-sustaining communities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Community engagement - care-a-van, workshops, and community educationFood Strong's community engagement programming brings residents, families, volunteers, partners, and community organizations together around food access, health, wellness, education, and neighborhood connection. Through care-a-van events, workshops, volunteer opportunities, and community learning experiences, Food Strong creates welcoming spaces where people can eat, learn, gather, and connect with local foods and vital community resources.care-a-van events feature access to fresh food, nutrition education, cooking demonstrations, multicultural community-building, and connections to health and wellness services provided by partner organizations. Through partnerships such as the case western reserve university physician assistant program and care alliance, as well as other community health partners, attendees have access to free health screenings, education, and information.Food Strong also offers workshops and public education related to gardening, cooking, composting, food systems, environmental stewardship, and community wellness. These activities strengthen neighborhood relationships, increase access to…
$27,196 spent$20,935 earned by the program6% of program spendingYouth education - food sovereignty school programFood Strong's food sovereignty school program provides hands-on education in gardening, culinary arts, nutrition, environmental studies, and entrepreneurship for youth across northeast ohio. Through partnerships with schools and community-based institutions, Food Strong guides young learners through planning, building, planting, maintaining, and harvesting fresh food, herb, and native flower gardens.programming emphasizes stem, the arts, environmental stewardship, community leadership, nutrition, food justice, and entrepreneurship. Students also learn how to prepare healthy meals from scratch using minimally processed whole foods. Lessons are designed to show that healthy food can be affordable, accessible, quick to prepare, culturally relevant, and delicious.in 2025, Food Strong continued serving hundreds of youth through school-based programming, field trips, garden lessons, cooking education, and youth leadership opportunities. Students gained practical skills in growing food, preparing meals, understanding local food systems, and exploring career pathways connected to agriculture, health, sustainability, and community…
$139,654 spent$64,301 earned by the program32% of program spendingUrban restoration - superior avenue community farm and coit road learning gardenFood Strong's urban restoration work focuses on transforming land and community spaces into places for food production, education, environmental stewardship, workforce development, and neighborhood gathering.in 2025, Food Strong continued its work at the Food Strong learning garden at coit road farmers market, where the organization hosted volunteer events, field trips, educational experiences, garden-based learning, and produce-growing activities. The site supported culinary education, youth entrepreneurship, volunteer engagement, and community maintenance efforts. Food Strong concluded its regular operations at the coit road learning garden in fall 2025 as the organization transitioned toward deeper investment in its long-term home at superior avenue community farm.Food Strong also advanced the development of superior avenue community farm, a 2.85-acre site in cleveland's st. Clair-superior neighborhood. The property includes agricultural space, high-tunnel hoop houses, a farmhouse, and a large former church/school building that requires significant restoration. This site is being developed as Food…
$275,198 spent$11,759 earned by the program62% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $442,048.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $115k to $331k (+188%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2022 100% · 2023 40% · 2024 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
85% of FOOD STRONG’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Sara Continenza
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $6k → $66k.
7 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 32% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of FOOD STRONG’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 24 of 25 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
FOOD STRONG has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
73% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund FOOD STRONG.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 53% · 2022 100% · 2023 38% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
25% of FOOD STRONG's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 32% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
51% of FOOD STRONG's grant income comes from Ohio funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $244k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
FOOD STRONG has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,975 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,975 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding FOOD STRONG receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $100k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$100k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like FOOD STRONG
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Ohio
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
68% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FOOD STRONG: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds FOOD STRONG?
- FOOD STRONG (Ohio) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $762,619 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF GREATER CLEVELAND ($200,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FOOD STRONG have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $762,619 in grants to FOOD STRONG, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FOOD STRONG?
- UNITED WAY OF GREATER CLEVELAND is the largest funder on record, with $200,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FOOD STRONG find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Ohio. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Food Strong →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2021–2024), and the filings of 25 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing