Gerber isn’t just a household name in baby food; it’s also a leader in supporting children in West Michigan.

Founded in 1952 as the Gerber Baby Foods Fund, The Gerber Foundation was a collaborative effort between Dan Gerber Sr., who spearheaded his namesake company’s focus on infant nutrition, and the Gerber Products Company. The goal was to help children develop, learn and grow with more than just food products.

“It all goes back to the history of The Gerber Foundation,” Catherine Obits, program manager, The Gerber Foundation said. “Dan Gerber and the company started this foundation, and he was a very strong proponent of supporting youth and helping them grow and learn to become good citizens. We try to continue that today with our local grant making.”

As a result, the foundation began robust grant making nationally and statewide. 

In 1994, the foundation became a separately endowed, private foundation when Gerber Products Company merged with Sandoz Ltd. In 1997, the name was changed to The Gerber Foundation.

According to the foundation, most of its funding today is dedicated to research on health and nutritional issues of infants and young children. But it also has a portion of funds dedicated to the development of youth ages zero to 18 in Lake, Muskegon, Newaygo and Oceana Counties, which includes some scholarships for graduating students of select high schools in those four counties.

Obits spoke with CMF about six specific grants that the foundation made in 2019 focused on its mission of supporting youth growth and development in West Michigan.

$10,000 to the Newaygo County Area Promise Zone

The Newaygo County Area Promise Zone provides tuition payments for students in Newaygo County attending Muskegon Community College to receive an associate’s degree. The Gerber Foundation has funded the Promise Zones for three years, citing the need for funding to keep the program going after its initial launch in 2016.

“We’ve been very pleased with the outcomes so far and the number of kids who are taking advantage of the opportunity,” Obits said.

$25,000 to the Newaygo County Museum and Heritage Center

The Gerber Foundation has a long history of providing annual funding to the Museum and Heritage Center for civics- and history-based learning for second, third and fourth graders. Museum staff develops grade-specific curricula with hands-on components, such as learning how ancient tools were made and used.

Due to program popularity, the Museum required more classroom space and some facilities upgrades to accommodate the growing number of student participants. The foundation funded some of the expansion and renovation in addition to two smaller grants for an exhibit showing how two local dams work and an interactive loom so kids can learn how fabrics were made before the Industrial Revolution.

$10,000 to Fremont Public Schools

In response to the state’s newly enacted law stating that third graders who are more than one grade level behind in reading may be required to repeat third grade, The Gerber Foundation provided funds to Fremont Public Schools to hire and support am elementary literacy coach to identify and support students with reading difficulties to help them read at grade level. The goal of the coach is to reduce the number of students reading below grade level and to prevent students from having to repeat grades. The coach also identifies students with learning disabilities that may be a barrier to their reading abilities and provides them with additional support.

“The coach has had great success,” Obits said. “Most of the kids that she works with can grow two grade levels in reading in just one semester.” The grant also allowed the coach to work with students over the summer to provide additional support to students who were in need and to minimize learning loss over the school break.

$10,000 to Grant Christian School

The foundation funded the Grant Christian School, a private K-8 school in Grant, for the first time in 2019 with the goal of providing state-of-the-art teaching tools, particularly in STEM education. The Gerber Foundation’s gift is part of a larger fundraising project for the school that includes the Fremont Area Community Foundation. The project will provide computers, smart boards and other equipment for teachers and students.

$25,000 to the Grand Valley State University Daniel and Pamella DeVos Center for Interprofessional Health

The Center for Interprofessional Health is a healthcare education and training facility located on Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile. The facility provides hands-on learning opportunities for students studying healthcare fields at Grand Valley. Students can practice on mannequins and live volunteers. The foundation is specifically funding a pediatrics exam room where students can practice on real and simulated child patients.

This project aligns with the foundation’s mission in two ways: It supports older youth who are students in healthcare fields and helps to cultivate the next generation of pediatric caregivers to support children’s health and well-being.

$177,407 to the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Foundation

Aligning with the foundation’s primary focus on research for children’s health, this grant allows plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Mann to conduct research on a technique for treating cleft palates in children. Preliminary research shows that Dr. Mann’s technique may be highly effective in improving patients’ speech and facial growth as well as reducing the number of follow-up surgeries necessary for patients.

“We’re looking specifically at the speech outcomes,” Obits said. “Mann will be using an online public mechanism where people can grade patients’ speech and nasal quality to see if patients whom he has treated have less-nasal speech than those who have undergone different treatments and comparing the speech of those treated by his technique with that of adults who never had a cleft palate repair.”

Want more?

Read about The Gerber Foundation and its West Michigan grants.