Community funding for
student innovation and creativity

Since CHEF’s founding in 2000, we have given over $1 million in grants to seed innovative new programs throughout the Croton-Harmon school district. As a private foundation, we are able to kickstart an idea into action, without having to find room in the tight school budget. We are proud to support activities in the arts, STEM fields, humanities, and beyond. Learn more about how to apply for a grant.

supporting the arts

One of CHEF’s most long-lasting legacies is the district-wide strings program, launched over a decade ago. Croton students can begin to learn a stringed instrument as early as the first grade, and then continue all the way up to their senior year. CHEF has also fully funded the electronic music program and supported a TV studio at CHHS. A new, CHEF-funded lighting system in the auditorium is the perfect backdrop for music and theater productions.

21st century learning environments

CHEF grants have underwritten flexible classrooms and state-of-the-art educational technology at all three district schools. At CET, grants funded flexible furniture, coding, and robotics programs. PVC students can access movement-based furniture and 3D printers in the InDe lab, funded through a CHEF grant. At CHHS, CHEF funded the creation of a new collaboration lab for many classes and students to use.

educational innovation

CHEF funds have kickstarted new approaches to learning across all disciplines and grade levels. Grants have funded game-based math, team-building through Lego activities, teacher training, and much more. When we began the 2020 school year on a remote and hybrid model, CHEF stepped in to fund document cameras so that all Croton students can see what a teacher is demonstrating in the classroom — in real time. At CHEF, we look to the future but also respond to the present, seeding innovation in all its forms.