The James Beard Foundation’s mission is to celebrate, nurture, and honor America’s diverse culinary heritage through programs that educate and inspire.

Students for the M.A. Food Studies program can now apply for a James Beard Foundation scholarship. The application period opens April 1, 2017. The deadline for submission is May 15, 2017.

Established in 1991, the scholarship program assists aspiring and established culinary professionals who plan to further their education at a licensed or accredited culinary school or hospitality institution, college, or university. In the past 25 years, the program has not only grown in visibility and financial scope, but in the array of subjects its recipients have embraced. As of 2016, the Foundation will have awarded over $ 7 million in financial aid to more than 1,850 recipients.

There are three basic types of awards:

  • Friends of James Beard: Cash grants applied to tuition (and sometimes other school-related expenses)
  • James Beard School Scholarships: Tuition waivers granted by educational institutions, which are renewable in some cases
  • Grants for working culinary professionals that cover expenses from programs offering experiential learning at farms, fisheries, wineries, and other venues of food production, under the auspices of the Jean-Louis Palladin Professional Work/Study program

The James Beard Foundation Scholarship Program is administered with the assistance of Scholarship America of St. Peter, Minnesota, a well-respected nonprofit organization dedicated to making post-secondary education available to all. Since its founding over 50 years ago, Scholarship America has distributed more than $3 billion in financial aid to over 2 million students.

Finalists will be reviewed by the James Beard Foundation Scholarship Selection Committee, under the direction of JBF president Susan Ungaro. Recipients will be notified by the end of August.

Applicants to the James Beard National Scholars program must reside (or have originally resided) in one of ten US regions. Many other cash scholarships have no such restrictions, and the funds  are applicable to tuition at the institution the student chooses.

Find out more at https://www.jamesbeard.org/education-scholarships-and-grants