We’re shaping our food system’s future…
…by investing in teachers, empowering students, and making Food Education a core part of every child’s school day.
Our Five Year Strategic Plan is an ambitious new project that aims to grow our reach thirtyfold over the next five years. In 2025, our board and staff adopted a five-year strategic plan to build on our success. With your partnership, we can make Food Education for All a reality, ensuring that every child has the knowledge and confidence to make informed food choices and help shape a stronger, healthier food system for generations to come.
Click Here to Read the Full Strategic Plan!
Our Why
Our food system is broken. Food Education is how we’ll fix it.
In 2025 and beyond, we face a national challenge:
- Rising rates of diet-related disease and health costs
- Growing demand for a skilled food and agriculture workforce
- Lack of information about ultra-processed foods, locally sourced foods, and where our food comes from
Now is the time to act. By bringing Food Education into classrooms, we can give every student the skills to eat well, support local economies, and lead a stronger, healthier food system.
Our Strategic Plan: A Bird’s Eye View
Our Strategic Plan builds on Pilot Light’s strong foundation to accomplish our goal of making comprehensive, teacher-led Food Education a critical component of every U.S. child’s education.
Since our founding in 2010, we have seen the power of Food Education grow and thrive in classrooms across the country. Now, we are poised to expand, transferring these important lessons to new regions.
Together, we will achieve this goal through four key pillars and seven strategic initiatives, all grounded in Pilot Light’s mission, vision, and values.
The Seven Strategic Initiatives: What We’ll Grow
- Grow Pilot Light’s reach to 10,000 teachers and 300,000 students nationwide, and see a 20% increase in student food knowledge and skills, engagement in classroom learning, and participation in food advocacy.
- Establish two thriving Pilot Light chapters in U.S. regions outside Chicago – starting in New York City.
- Invest in Teacher, School, and District leaders to scale and deepen Pilot Light’s reach.
- Accelerate and diversify Pilot Light’s Funder Base to ensure the sustainability of Pilot Light’s operations and growth.
- Expand Pilot Light’s resources to deliver easily accessible content, including lessons and trainings, to both teachers and students.
- Empower students to become food system changemakers through partnerships with community-based organizations and an expanded presence in the Food as Medicine field.
- Enshrine Pilot Light’s Food Education Standards as a core component of student’s education through systems-level advocacy and coalition building.
Click Here to Learn More!
It Starts With You
Fuel the Future
Together, we can bring Food Education to all students nationwide. We are confident that we can bring this powerful vision to life – with your support. We need partners who believe in the power of food to shape our health economically, socially, and environmentally.
You can help us by committing your:
- Financial Support
- Time & Presence
- Connections, Voice, & Commitment