W.K. Kellogg Foundation Opens Local Detroit Office

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Dec 17, 2013, 11:11 ET

New office helps staff partner with community leaders to better serve and support the city's children and families

DETROIT, Dec. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) will celebrate the opening of its new local office in downtown Detroit today, Tuesday, Dec. 17. Based in Battle Creek, Mich., the Kellogg Foundation works with diverse leaders, grassroots organizations, institutions and other community partners to ensure that Detroit's children are well-educated, healthy and living in economically secure families.

The foundation's new office, located at 28 W. Adams Ave., Suite 1650, in downtown Detroit, will house WKKF's dedicated Detroit program staff, which includes Program Officers Sharnita C. Johnson, Linda Jo Doctor and Edward Egnatios and Program Manager Lan Pham. The local office will enable program team members, who already reside and work in and around Detroit, to remain close to the community to support its needs and learn from community members.

"At the Kellogg Foundation, we strive to identify and support community-led solutions and to make grants that are responsive to community needs, particularly in our priority places like Detroit," said La June Montgomery Tabron, WKKF's current executive vice president for operations and treasurer, and incoming president and CEO. "The issues facing children and families in Detroit appear locally and require local solutions, and our new office in Detroit will position the Kellogg Foundation and its local team to be an even more effective community partner."

Since 1933, WKKF has invested nearly $260 million in Detroit to support children and their families in Michigan's largest city. In the last year, the foundation invested about $25 million in grants in the city to improve conditions for Detroit's children.

About the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to help break the cycle of poverty by removing barriers based on race or income that hold back children, so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti.

SOURCE W.K. Kellogg Foundation