Grants
The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts
The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts was created by Julia in 1995 and became operational in 2004. Headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, the Foundation is a non-profit which makes grants to support research in culinary history, scholarships for professional culinary training and internships in food writing, as well as professional development and food literacy programs. Over the last decade, the Foundation has made more than $2 million in grants to other non-profits. In 2015, the Foundation created the Julia Child Award, presented in association with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The annual Award honors an individual who has made a profound and significant difference in the way Americans cook, eat and drink, and is accompanied by a $50,000 grant from the Foundation to a food-related non-profit selected by the recipient.
The Foundation identifies and selects its grant recipients; however, we are open to learning about new opportunities. Click here to inform us about your project or organization. (Please note that the Foundation can only support organizations designated as non-profit by the Internal Revenue Service; we do not make grants to individuals.)
Grant Recipients
Julia was instrumental in the formation of and highly supportive of BU’s groundbreaking Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) in Gastronomy. The interdisciplinary program teaches students to view food through different lenses – from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, history, public policy and business – and features experiential learning through culinary arts laboratories and wine studies. BU’s full-time Culinary Arts program, co-founded by Julia and Jacques Pépin in 1989, features intensive, hands-on cooking and baking courses taught by experienced working chefs and food industry experts. Merging traditional culinary arts study with hands-on instruction in a laboratory kitchen, the program provides deep insight into the food industry and prepares students for a wide variety of jobs. The Foundation supports merit awards presented to students in BU’s Gastronomy Program, as well as Teaching Assistant positions awarded to outstanding students in the Culinary Arts Program.
Julia encouraged young people interested in cooking professionally to get solid training and gain work experience in good kitchens. C-CAP is a multifaceted school-to-career program that prepares underserved high school students for college and career opportunities in the restaurant and hospitality industry, including internships and employment in top restaurants and corporate dining facilities. The Foundation helps support C-CAP’s Summer Job Training Program, which provides high school students with work skills and on-the-job experience. The students gain valuable experience to prepare them for entry-level jobs in restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals and other major foodservice venues. Furthermore, the program equips young people with job skills that are applicable to all professions, such as communication, time management, interpersonal relations, problem solving and work ethics.
Julia was a committed student and passionate about enhancing her knowledge of the culinary arts, including its history. Culinary Historians of New York was founded in 1985 to support research, share knowledge of how food has affected individuals since earliest times, and raise awareness about the field of culinary history. Members of CHNY include chefs, cooking teachers, historians, anthropologists, food writers, food editors, food stylists, researchers, librarians, caterers, collectors, nutritionists, and food enthusiasts – intellectual curiosity is the common denominator. The Foundation supports The Culinary Historians of New York Scholar’s Grant, which is designed to promote research and scholarship in the field of culinary history.
A strong believer in culinary education, Julia frequently recommended this prestigious college to aspiring professionals. She addressed several graduations, conducted cooking demonstrations, and engaged students in question-and-answer forums. Julia was named a Fellow of the college and was the first woman inducted into its Hall of Fame; she was awarded the CIA’s Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts degree and its first Lifetime Achievement Award. The Foundation supports two awards: The Julia Child Foundation Scholarship for Culinary Writing and the Julia Child Foundation Scholarship for Culinary Educators; awarded to students planning to pursue careers in food media/journalism and in teaching the culinary arts respectively.
Julia was committed to making the culinary arts and gastronomy accessible to a wide audience. Heritage Radio Network.org (HRN) is a non-profit member-supported radio station with more than one million monthly listeners in over 200 countries. Since its inception in 2009, Heritage Radio Network has broadcast more than 10,000 shows and produces more than 35 regular weekly programs. Heritage Radio Network is committed to archiving, protecting and advancing America’s rich food culture through programs that give voice to the country’s leading food professionals, farmers, policy experts, artists and tastemakers. Radio hosts are chefs, culinary scientists and “food-forward urban homesteaders.” Shows feature content ranging from chef biographies and cooking techniques to food policy analysis, interviews with farmers, restaurateurs, music and cultural events. The intersection between radio and the Internet allows HRN to transmit its message to virtually every corner of the globe. The Foundation supports programs and initiatives to help Heritage Radio Network expand its overall programming capability and in turn its audience reach.
Julia visited Johnson & Wales University several times during her lifetime and was awarded a Doctor of Culinary Arts from the university. Today, nearly 7,000 students are enrolled in two or four-year Culinary Arts degree programs across its four campuses (Providence, RI, Denver, CO, Charlotte, NC, and North Miami, FL). The majors in this program include Baking & Pastry Arts, Culinary Arts, Culinary Nutrition, Culinary Arts and Food Service Management, Baking & Pastry Arts and Food Service Management, and Food Service Entrepreneurship. The Foundation provides scholarships to support students pursuing their A.S. and/or B.S. degrees in JWU’s Baking and Pastry Arts programs across the different campuses.
LDEI is a worldwide philanthropic society of professional women leaders in the fields of food, fine beverages, and hospitality, and composed of 28 individual chapters across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. During her lifetime, Julia received the honorary title of Grande Dame, given in recognition of extraordinary and unusual contributions to the fields of food, wine, other fine beverages, nutrition, and the arts of the table. The Foundation supports LDEI’s Legacy Awards in which veteran members mentor other women in the food, fine beverage and hospitality industries.
Robert Mondavi, a dear friend of Julia’s, established the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science within the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis. The Institute now houses the departments of Food Science and Technology and Viticulture and Enology, with nutrition and other disciplines linked to quality of life in a state-of-the-art research and teaching complex. RMI seeks to promote the scientific, technological, and cultural understanding of food, wine, and beer through outreach, education, and research. The Foundation supports RMI’s lecture series, which presents a variety of educational programs available to both students and the public.
Julia greatly valued and admired the Schlesinger Library and all it does to collect and preserve materials relating to the culinary arts. Originally developed because cookery has been such a significant part of so many women’s lives, the Library’s renowned culinary collection of more than 15,000 books and numerous periodicals, pamphlets, and manuscripts now spans four centuries and includes rare and classic titles from around the globe. The Foundation supports the Schlesinger’s Culinary Collection and the preservation of and public access to the personal papers Julia Child donated, as well as the cataloging of Julia’s books and memorabilia and the cataloging and digitizing of Paul Child’s photos, which include pictures taken from the Childs’ years in France and during the filming of The French Chef. The Foundation also made a grant to the Schlesinger Library to conduct a women’s oral history project about the life and work of Judith Jones, Julia’s longtime editor at The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
In November 2001, when Julia left her Massachusetts home of 42 years to return to her native California, she donated her kitchen to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH). The kitchen was deconstructed, transported, and reconstructed in the Museum to become “Bon Appetit! Julia Child’s Kitchen” at the Smithsonian, which opened in 2002, and has been one of the museum’s most popular exhibits. In conjunction with Julia’s centenary in 2012, NMAH opened a new exhibit: FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000, which included the re-installation of a new and improved Julia’s Kitchen as its entrance. The Foundation continues to support the ongoing conservation of the exhibit and its contents, as well as supporting educational programs at NMAH, which focus on culinary history and education, such as the American Food History Project, its “Kitchen Cabinet” steering committee and its recent Food in the Garden summer series.
Julia was a passionate advocate for sharing the joys of cooking and the pleasures of the table with family and friends. The Dinner Party Project is an eight-week, family-focused educational program for 5th graders. The curriculum includes seasonal meal planning, nutrition, food safety, table setting, etiquette, and cooking, all culminating in a dinner party to which students invite their families. The experience deepens students’ understanding of the value of community, family, and teamwork, as they build self-esteem and simply have fun. The Foundation helps support the Dinner Party Project at PS 132 Juan Duarte School in Washington Heights, NY. The Foundation also supports Take a Taste with Spoons, a 3-session food and nutrition literacy program for third graders across 20 classrooms in New York City, serving roughly 500 students. Each lesson focuses on different themes – elements of taste, healthy beverages and nutritious snacks – providing opportunities for students to eat, cook and share food with their classmates and families. The Foundation has also contributed to the Spoons’ program evaluation project.
Julia had great affection and respect for public television and, in particular, WGBH, where The French Chef series debuted nationally in 1963 and ran for 10 years. Subsequent WGBH cooking shows – which included Julia Child & Company, Julia Child & More Company and Dinner at Julia’s – have been aired and repeated ever since. WGBH continues to develop and support fine gastronomy and culinary arts programming. The Foundation recognizes the long-standing relationship between Julia and WGBH and its high-quality culinary programming. The Foundation most recently supported a project to digitize and preserve rediscovered footage primarily from The French Chef.
Past Grant Recipients
The AIWF Foundation was created by the board of the American Institute of Wine & Food, a national membership organization founded by Julia Child, Robert Mondavi, and Richard Graff. The mission of the AIWF Foundation is to improve the quality of food and drink for all people and to initiate, support, and foster its study, including the history and aesthetics of gastronomy. The AIWF Foundation currently administers scholarships in the culinary field, including for writers specializing in food and recipe writing to attend the esteemed Symposium for Professional Food Writers, which Julia herself attended for many of the conference’s 20 plus years.
A passionate academic, Julia was committed to enhancing her knowledge of the culinary arts, including its history. The Culinary Historians of Chicago (CHC) is an educational organization committed to the study of the history of food and drink in human cultures. CHC’s members are from a wide range of competencies – the common denominator being that all are food enthusiasts. The Foundation supported The Culinary Historians of Chicago Scholars’ Grants (in collaboration with the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance) to encourage the study of Midwestern foods and food-related institutions. The awards are intended to help underwrite the research of academics and other investigators who intend to publish their findings in books, articles, videos or other media.
Julia appreciated the academic side of the culinary arts, including its history. The Culinary Historians of Southern California (CHSC) was founded in 1995 as an affiliate of the Los Angeles Public Library. Its membership of 250 comprises culinary professionals, academics and interested amateurs from various fields. The group presents monthly forums at the Los Angeles Public Library and CHSC members contribute to the library’s culinary collection that includes over 18,000 cookbooks. CHSC curates talks at libraries and cultural institutions and they periodically run events investigating the culinary culture of different ethnic and historical neighborhoods in greater Los Angeles. The Foundation sponsored a lecture series on food history in libraries and museums throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
Julia was passionate about developing innovative educational opportunities in the culinary arts. In its 10th year as a public culinary arts high school in New York City, Food and Finance High School (FFHS) offers a full range of academic courses in addition to a sequence of cooking and baking classes and paid internships in the culinary field. Annually the school sends 85-90% of its graduates on to higher education, many to culinary colleges. FFHS runs a cooperative extension program with Cornell University and provides opportunities for students to cater events, compete in culinary competitions and garner a variety of experiences in the culinary arts. The Foundation provided a grant to FFHS to professionally produce two videos that highlight how the school is innovatively teaching tomorrow’s chefs and how the school serves as a model for Career and Technical Education (CTE). The videos are be used in a variety of ways, including as a vehicle to promote the school as a model of CTE, as well as in philanthropic efforts.
Julia was one of the first visitors to The French Culinary Institute when it opened in Manhattan in 1984. FCI has continually expanded its programs and its reach, including its International Culinary Center, which opened in 2006 to accommodate additional culinary programs. Advanced studies such as the Craft of Food Writing course, developed for aspiring and active journalists, chefs and culinary professionals, are offered there. The Foundation most recently supported a scholarship for students attending the Intensive Sommelier Training Program at FCI’s newly opened International Culinary Center of California.
As a cookbook author, Julia was enthusiastic about writing, researching and publishing. In 2014, the Foundation supported The Roger Smith Cookbook Conference, an annual 3-day conference at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City. It’s an eclectic and intimate gathering of those who publish, write, edit, agent, research or simply buy and use cookbooks. While cookbooks were an integral part of the conference, other topics connected to the world of cookbook publishing were discussed. The 2014 conference was specifically focused on food technology and the Foundation supported scholarships to individuals who reside outside of New York City and could not otherwise afford to pay for costs associated with travel and conference fees. In April 2015, the conference, now entitled, “Gotham on a Plate,” took place in a larger venue at NYC’s The New School and focused on New York City’s culinary life, including its history, restaurants, hunger programs and policies.
An avid collector of books and a travel enthusiast, Julia enjoyed visiting and learning about various cultures. The National Food and Beverage Foundation documents and celebrates the food and drink of all cultures through exhibits, programming and a range of media. The National Food and Beverage Foundation comprises several divisions, such as the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, the Museum of the American Cocktail, the Culinaria Center for Food Law, Policy and Culture and the John & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library. The Foundation supported the research and development of an exhibit on food and cultural identity entitled, “A Defining Taste: Cuisine, Cultural Identity, and the Creole Migration.” The exhibit illustrates the great post-war Creole migration from New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana to the West Coast and other points along the nation’s railroad lines where Creoles employed cuisine as a means to re-establish themselves in a strange place. TheJohn & Bonnie Boyd Hospitality & Culinary Library contains over 11,000 volumes of culinary books, food and cocktail menus, pamphlets, archival documents and a growing number of important collections. The Foundation also gave a grant to support the acquisition and conservation of new and rare cookbooks at the library.