Portland (OR), Spokane (WA) and Findlay (OH) selected as first-place winners for the 2026 Healthy and Sustainable Communities Awards
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — American Beverage, the American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America (ABFHA) and the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) today announced nine winning cities of the 2026 Healthy and Sustainable Communities Awards.
The 2026 grant recipients – Portland (OR), Sacramento (CA), Arlington (TX), Findlay (OH), Riviera Beach (FL), Schenectady (NY), Spokane (WA), Bridgeport (CT) and Rochester (MN) – received a total of $1,000,000 in grants for their initiatives promoting healthier lifestyles and advancing environmental sustainability.
“Strong communities are built locally, by leaders who understand their cities and the people they serve,” said Kevin Keane, president and CEO of American Beverage and president of the American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America Board of Directors. “For more than a decade, America’s beverage companies have been proud to partner with the U.S. Conference of Mayors to support cities that are turning innovative health and sustainability ideas into measurable, community-driven results. We congratulate this year’s winning mayors and cities for their leadership and impact, and for showing what’s possible when local leadership is matched with sustained investment and collaboration.”
The announcement took place during the 94th Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC, where mayors from across the nation gathered to celebrate their peers’ dedication to creating vibrant, healthy, and sustainable cities.
Including this year, since the launch of this partnership in 2012, these awards have invested more than $8 million in 93 cities across the nation. The initiative reflects America’s beverage companies’ long-standing commitment to tackling critical health and environmental challenges with community-driven solutions.
“The partnership between the American Beverage Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors is truly one of a kind,” said USCM CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran. “For more than a decade, we’ve invested millions in programs that make a real difference on the ground – helping cities strengthen communities and improve outcomes for children and families across the nation. At a time when local leaders are being asked to do more than ever, this partnership stands as a powerful example of how public and private sectors can work together to deliver real results.”
First, second and third place awards were presented to cities within three categories based on population. Descriptions of each winning program can be found below.
SMALL CITY WINNERS
First Place
Findlay, OH – Mayor Christina Muryn
Findlay’s Urban Prairie Pilot Project – A Model for Sustainability will convert flood-damaged, city-owned turfgrass in the Blanchard River floodplain into a five-acre native prairie with trails, trees, educational features, and long-term ecological management in partnership with Wild Toledo and the Blanchard River Watershed Partnership. The project is designed to improve stormwater infiltration and water quality, reduce flooding and erosion, cut maintenance costs by 80–90%, increase biodiversity, provide accessible green space and environmental education, and create a replicable model for prairie conversion on flood mitigation lands.
Second Place
Riviera Beach, FL – Mayor Douglas Lawson
The Healthy Wallets, Healthy Lives Initiative in Riviera Beach is a 12-month, multi-generational intervention for 150 low-to-moderate-income families that combines financial literacy (“Penny”), nutrition access and education, including produce vouchers (“Plate”), and zero-cost recreation and mentorship in parks (“Park”). The initiative is designed to increase fiscal stability (e.g., 70% of households establishing an emergency health fund), reduce non-mortgage debt, improve or stabilize youth BMI percentiles, boost caregivers’ confidence in sourcing and preparing healthy meals, and build a scalable model linking economic and health gains.
Third Place
Schenectady, NY – Mayor Gary McCarthy
Live Well Schenectady is a multi-component health initiative using parks and city services to provide fresh produce, gardening education, community garden connections, running programs, “Fishing with a Firefighter,” and water conservation/trash cleanup activities for residents. The initiative is designed to increase healthy habits and physical activity among youth and older adults, tackle food disparities, and ultimately reduce EMS and health-related 911 calls, resulting in cost savings and improved community well-being.
MEDIUM-SIZED CITY WINNERS
First Place
Spokane, WA – Mayor Lisa Brown
The expansion of Spokane’s Student-Led Youth Wellness Zone will allow students in Northeast Spokane to lead projects that address youth anxiety, food insecurity, and climate-related stress through schoolyard forests, greenhouses, composting, and food distribution, in partnership with schools, the city, and community organizations. The initiative is designed to increase youth civic engagement and leadership, expand access to fresh food, improve environmental resilience (trees, composting, biodiversity), and strengthen mental well-being and academic engagement for participating students.
Second Place
Bridgeport, CT – Mayor Joseph Ganim
Bridgeport will create The Greenhouse Impact, an intergenerational greenhouse program pairing 15 fourth–fifth graders in the Lighthouse After School Program with 15 seniors from the East Side Senior Center to learn about native plants, grow fruits/vegetables in a year-round greenhouse, and connect to community gardens. The initiative will establish a successful greenhouse garden, develop environmental stewards across generations, promote healthier eating and food security among students and seniors, and build social bonds between youth and older adults, with potential expansion to other sites.
Third Place
Rochester, MN – Mayor Kim Norton
Through Move to the Market: Incentivizing Health, Equity, and Local Foods, the city of Rochester will distribute food vouchers to low-income families that are redeemable at The Village farmers’ markets and increase in value when patrons walk, bike, or otherwise physically move to the market; purchase excess produce from farmers for redistribution to food-insecure families. The initiative is designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, reduce food insecurity (with targeted reductions in self- reported insecurity and obesity), grow market attendance and farmer sales, and link physical activity to food access in a culturally relevant way for immigrant and low-income communities.
LARGE CITY WINNERS
First Place
Portland, OR – Mayor Keith Wilson
The Waste and Wellness Package in Portland will expand a peer-led environmental workforce under the Mayor’s Office to employ 20 workers with lived experience of homelessness or poverty to collect micro-debris, recover hard to recycle materials, support public restrooms, and protect stormwater/green infrastructure. The initiative will create paid jobs for 20 peer environmental workers, remove 8–12 tons of small debris, divert 10–15 tons of reusable or hard to recycle materials from landfills, improve stormwater function and cleanliness at Portland Loo sites, and increase public engagement around hygiene and environmental stewardship.
Second Place
Sacramento, CA – Mayor Kevin McCarty
Through Field Trips for Fresh Food Access, the city of Sacramento will provide free field trips and related activities that bring students from disadvantaged schools to farmers’ markets and a community garden using free youth transit, pairing curriculum with “Kids Bucks” produce vouchers, garden visits, and parent education on CalFresh/Market Match. The goals of the initiative are to increase students’ exposure to and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, raise awareness and use of CalFresh/Market Match, reduce inequities in field trip access, and strengthen family engagement with local food resources.
Third Place
Arlington, TX – Mayor Jim Ross
Through its Feeding Children, Fueling the Future initiative, the city of Arlington will expand and modernize its summer meal program and build the capacity to operate as a Texas Department of Agriculture–approved Contracting Entity for the USDA Summer Food Service Program, using recreation centers as meal sites. The initiative is designed to increase the number of children receiving summer meals by at least 25% in the first year, achieve CE certification and a self-sustaining, federally reimbursed meal system, and move toward universal summer nutrition access for eligible children citywide.
About American Beverage
American Beverage (AB) is the trade association that represents America’s non-alcoholic beverage industry. Today, AB represents hundreds of beverage producers, distributors, franchise companies and support industries. Together, they bring to market hundreds of brands, flavors and packages, including regular and diet soft drinks, bottled water and water beverages, 100 percent juice and juice drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks and ready-to-drink teas. To learn more about American Beverage, visit americanbeverage.org.
About the American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America
The American Beverage Foundation for a Healthy America (ABFHA) is dedicated to strengthening communities from coast to coast to create positive change for our nation. Since the Foundation’s inception, we’ve provided millions of dollars in grants directly to organizations and cities that are making a real impact on the lives of real people. To learn more about ABFHA, visit beveragefoundation.org.
About the United States Conference of Mayors – The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are more than 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Follow our work on X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, and Medium.
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SOURCE U.S. Conference of Mayors
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