Quick Reaction Fund: Hunger Requires A Faster Response
MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger launched the Quick Reaction Fund (QRF) in 2017 and since then the QRF has served as a powerful tool for anti-hunger policy advocates to win campaigns and strengthen the food security of our neighbors.
The QRF rapidly deploys grant dollars so that advocates can rise to the challenge of unanticipated, time-limited challenges or opportunities to achieve policy change.
The most common examples of successful QRF proposals include digital advocacy campaigns to pressure lawmakers to stop a bad bill that would take the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits from low-income workers; to organize local efforts to expand free school meals; or, to ensure a state disaster declaration and response include historically marginalized communities in areas impacted by a hurricane.
MAZON’s grantmaking strategies are responding to the unprecedented needs of state- and community-based advocates across the country. The QRF is geared for rapid deployment of resources to strategically respond to the ruthless attacks of the Trump Administration on the nation’s food safety net and basic needs programs.
Latino Community Fund
The Latino Community Fund is working to protect vulnerable immigrant and refugee communities in Georgia. Recent federal policy and regulatory changes, most notably the 2025 federal budget bill (H.R.1), also known as “the Big Beautiful Bill,” and the rhetoric of state-level politicians have created waves of confusion and new barriers to food security. At the same time they are implementing and proposing further reductions in eligibility that disproportionately harm immigrant and mixed-status households.
In response, the Latino Community Fund launched a bilingual rapid-response campaign to counter harmful narratives and misinformation about SNAP, and free lunch access for immigrants and mixed-status families in Georgia. With the support of the QRF, they are working to push back against misinformation and fearmongering campaigns leading many immigrant families to withdraw from or avoid seeking basic needs programs even if they are legally eligible to receive them, deepening food insecurity and health inequities.
The effort is uplifting immigrant voices, educating community members about their rights, and building pressure on decision-makers through targeted communications tailored to Latino and allied communities.
Hawai’i Foodbank
Hawai’i Foodbank and other food banks in the state have experienced more than $4 million in cuts to federal programs since the start of the second Trump Administration. These cuts came ahead of the devastating impacts of H.R.1. HFB is leveraging the QRF to advance state-level solutions to the federal cuts by realizing two unique, time-sensitive opportunities to help address urgent funding gaps in the fight against hunger in both the short- and long-term.
The first opportunity is a one-time only piece of legislation, SB933 (Act 310), which allocated $50 million in state funding for health and human services organizations that have sustained a reduction or termination of their federal funding. The second opportunity is the decennial amendment of the Honolulu Charter (effectively Honolulu’s constitution) to directly address food security into the future while placing responsibility for solving hunger back on the government.
A Just Harvest
A Just Harvest is also launching an advocacy campaign for state-level policy solutions to the holes H.R.1 is cutting in the federal safety net. They are working in coalition with other anti-hunger organizations to ensure Illinois allocates the required funding to fully replace federal funding for SNAP benefits and program administration funds that the state may lose in the cost-share scheme. A Just Harvest estimates Illinois stands to lose $809 million in benefits for 450,000 SNAP participants at a minimum.
Their other policy priorities include replacing SNAP Ed with state funding and supporting these initiatives by raising revenue through a progressive tax. A Just Harvest is both engaging in direct lobbying of state lawmakers and mobilizing their local communities to build pressure to achieve their policy agenda.
More than 70 Campaigns to Fight Hunger
Since MAZON launched the QRF eight years ago, the fund has supported seventy-three policy campaigns with a total of nearly $775,000. The QRF supports programmatic costs up to $15,000 including but not limited to digital or traditional ad buys, stipends to empower neighbors with lived experiences to testify at a committee hearing, design and printing costs for fliers, leave behinds, or door hangers.
The fund does not support costs related to permanent staff positions or direct services like food distribution. MAZON staff typically responds to requests and disburses funds to approved applications within 5 business days.MAZON accepts QRF proposals on a rolling basis. Learn more about eligibility and apply here (link). If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to MAZON’s Program Manager, Joey Hentzler.