Fit Houston is one of EHF’s 17 new grant recipients
Episcopal Health Foundation (EHF) has invested $4.3 million in new grants that help community-based organizations and health clinics address food and nutrition security, maternal health, and diabetes prevention in Texas. The investments are learning grants focused on the foundation’s new priorities for change outlined in its 2024-2030 Strategic Framework.
“We believe that by confronting and addressing these priorities we can make strides in reducing preventable differences in health outcomes based on income, race/ethnicity, and where a person lives,” said Dr. Ann Barnes, EHF’s president and CEO. “While our effort to address these priorities makes up just a portion of EHF’s total grants portfolio, we believe that driving positive health outcomes in these new areas will strengthen all of our work and have a broad impact beyond these three priorities.”
Before making the grant investments, EHF staff invested months listening to and learning from those with understanding, knowledge, and lived expertise in food and nutrition security, maternal health, and diabetes prevention. The foundation prioritized learning from individuals, families, congregations, and communities with lived experience dealing with these health-related conditions in urban and rural areas, and all places in between.
“The goal was to hear directly from those impacted to ensure that pilot projects, interventions, and programs funded by EHF’s grant investments met the needs of those directly affected,” Barnes said.
EHF’s effort included meetings with more than 100 local and national organizations, learning from dozens of clinical and public health experts, speaking with hundreds of people at events held by Episcopal congregations, and making more than 20 site visits to organizations working directly in communities across Texas.
Each of EHF’s 17 new grants address non-medical factors that impact health and work across one of EHF’s foundational action areas: health and health care services, healthy communities, and health policies. Grant recipients include previous EHF grantees along with many new and smaller organizations receiving their first investments from the foundation.
Complete list of EHF’s Priorities for Change grant recipients:
Food and Nutrition Security
- $225,000 to the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty to lead communities to develop Hunger Free Community Coalitions through a certification program, interactive cohort engagement, and a dynamic training experience
- $200,000 to Feeding Texas to support development of neighbor engagement and lived experience integration into the programming of member food banks and then using that information to influence policy agendas
- $500,000 to Sustainable Food Center to increase food security of SNAP participants by offering nutrition incentives called Double Up Food Bucks at an expanding network of Texas grocery stores and farmers’ markets in East Texas
- $100,000 to Tarrant Area Food Bank to support the development and implementation of in-school food pantries at two Title I schools in rural counties
- $150,000 to The Neighborhood Garden Project to support staff and increase community garden sites using land at Episcopal churches in Greater Houston
- $175,000 to the Un-Included Club in Temple to support development of a replicable model to create small learning environments that are focused on food and nutrition, especially in rural counties
Maternal Health
- $200,000 to Baylor College of Medicine to create a pilot program that includes interventions to address the non-medical needs of families with infants in the Neonatal ICU and support caregiver-baby bonds and maternal mental health in the NICU
- $500,000 to Giving Austin Labor Support (GALS) to support the Maternal Health Equity Collaborative’s Perinatal Childcare Program. The program provides free high-quality and culturally-responsive temporary childcare for Black and Latino children to give mothers a short-term break to take care of their health needs before and after giving birth
- $200,000 to the Luz de Atabey Midwifery Project in Austin to strengthen its ability to expand the delivery of high-quality maternal health services that are culturally rooted, trauma informed and generationally healing for those who have been historically marginalized, especially immigrants, refugees, and queer and transgender families
- $250,000 to the Preeclampsia Foundation to support programming for the MoMMA’s (Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Advocates) Voices program in Texas. MoMMA’s Voices is the is the first-ever maternal health patient advocates program that brings together patient advocates and health care partners to create improvements in maternal health
- $375,000 to The Seattle Foundation to support the Maternal Health Equity Fund, a national effort of leading maternal health funders that underwrites a network of grassroots organizations focused on maternal mental health and family well-being
- 375,000 to the Shades of Blue Project to build the capacity of the INSPIRE Collaborative for Maternal Health, a national effort to drive comprehensive policy and culturally-responsive practice changes that address disparities in maternal mental health
- $100,000 to the Texas Doula Association (TDA) to conduct a comprehensive survey of the Texas doula workforce, using findings to strengthen TDA state-wide advocacy and policy discussions regarding maternal health initiatives, doula practice policies, and compensation for doulas
Diabetes Prevention
- $250,000 to Gulfton Home Community in Houston to support the development of a resident-led diabetes prevention program within its apartment community campus that leads to measurable improvement in health outcomes related to diabetes risk
- $250,000 to Fit Houston to increase the organizational capacity for program implementation and data collection with the aim of learning if an organized and conveniently-located group walking program can increase the number of individuals engaged in moderate physical activity, a key component of diabetes prevention
- $200,000 to Lone Star Circle of Care in Central Texas to explore the feasibility of creating and implementing a continuous glucose monitoring program for prediabetes patients to reduce the onset of type-2 diabetes
- $275,950 to The University of Texas at Austin to develop, implement, and evaluate a communication strategy that improves discussions about diabetes prevention in clinical settings
Grants Update Reminder
EHF expects to release detailed Grant Guidance in June 2025 for an open call for grant applications in the summer. Successful applicants be awarded in December 2025. Grant Guidance will include detailed information on the application process, updated funding priorities, grant cycles, and more.
Most of EHF’s grant funding in 2025 will continue to support our core Action Areas where current work exists and previous grants have been made:
Health & Health Care Services
Healthy Communities
Health Policies
However, a smaller portion of grant funding in 2025 will focus on new demonstration projects that fall within EHF new Priorities for Change:
Food & Nutrition Security
Maternal Health
Diabetes Prevention
