Philanthropy Central

During the first five years of the 2000s, the approach adopted by the California Endowment, a $3 billion Los Angeles-based foundation dedicated to improving the health of Californians, evolved from nutrition education to public policy change. Initially, the Endowment emphasized the traditional approach—nutrition education on a one-to-one basis. Within the Endowment, there was considerable debate about whether to reframe the issue by de-emphasizing individual behavioral change and giving more attention to policy changes that would create more healthy nutrition environments. What won the day for the environmental approach was the argument that sufficient money was available for nutrition education from the state health department, WIC, and other agencies to allow the Endowment to move in a different direction.