Smart and Bold Ideas.
The Rauch Foundation takes an entrepreneurial approach to promoting change by investing in areas where we can have a fundamental impact.
Our mission is two-fold:
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To promote the positive health outcomes and financial preparedness of rising generations of students by supporting schools in the delivery of nutrition and financial literacy programs.
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To promote a healthy planet by connecting these themes with broader research into global food systems.
The foundation believes nutrition literacy is essential in helping students understand the connection between what they consume and their overall health and wellness. Our school-based work in Vermont and New England is focused on connecting classrooms with the community and encouraging critical thinking about food sources. As important as good nutrition is to one's well-being, so too is financial preparedness and the foundation's investment in financial literacy acknowledges a growing national support for this curriculum and is designed to help young people develop the skills to navigate a successful future for themselves and their families.
Building on the Rauch Foundation’s long history of providing evidence-based research and data to inform policy, our work in food systems is centered on exploring the nexus between the food we consume and the systems involved in its financing, sourcing, production and delivery. We are interested in how these systems function and how global, national, and regional actions impact the health of communities, economies, and the environment.
From our President, Eva Douzinas
“Our own observations are consistent with the research we are finding on the serious health crisis taking place in this country and around the world, pointing to a broken food system responsible for the collapse of biodiversity, and serious health issues like diabetes, obesity and still, malnutrition. To address this on a local scale, we seek to bring together community leaders and stakeholders to help us improve the health and life skills, including financial preparedness, of high school graduates. As in the past, the foundation is also interested in the root of the issues we fund and we will continue to surface research, information and objective data to decision-makers.”