Community Food Security Grants Release No. 0422.98 Backgrounder Community Food Security Grants Sowing Seed and Stocking Shelves: Low Income Families and Youth $80,000 Upper Sand Mountain United Methodist Larger Parish, Inc., Sylvania, AL This project offers a comprehensive approach to motivate and train rural southern-Appalachian low-income families and youth in producing, processing, and marketing vegetables. Youth from rural high schools will develop and lead workshops in construction of solar food dryers, attached passive-solar greenhouses, and raised-bed or cold-frame square food gardens. Low-income families will be provided seed, fertilizer, canning-jars, and supplies along with technical assistance, transportation, and loans of equipment. Volunteers will glean, grow, and process vegetables from area farms and gardens for use by urban soup kitchens and pantries across Alabama, and develop specialty products that can be marketed through a worker-owned cooperative. Contact: Dorsey H. Walker (256 638-2126) The Dine' Community Foods Project $184,000 Seba Dalkai School, Inc., Winslow, AZ This project will bring together a coalition of local and national organizations to establish a sustainable regional network connecting local farmers with technical expertise and viable food markets. The primary focus of the project is to ensure that abundant locally grown nutritious foods are available to help low-income community members rediscover self-reliance and heighten their appreciation for the benefits of a traditional Navajo diet. The objective is to comprehensively address problems including nutritional deficits of Navajo people, the lack of locally produced Navajo traditional food, and inadequate economic development within the impoverished Teesto Chapter of the Navajo Nation. Collaborators: Agribusiness program, Arizona State University; Department of Grain Science, Kansas State University. Contact: Kyril Calsoyas (520 657-3208) Food, Health, and the Environment $205,000 Tucson Audubon Society, Tucson, AZ This project will improve food security for residents of Tucson's lower- income southside neighborhoods by linking residents, school, neighborhood associations, environmental educators, and the community food system. The project will involve residents in developing the Southside Food Production Network, a system of school, community, and backyard garden sites which will produce fresh food to sell, contribute to the emergency food system, and be consumed by the gardeners and their families. Collaborator: University of Arizona, Tucson Community Food Bank, Community Marketplace Project, community of Cascabel. Contact: Lucia Sayre (520 882-5885) Proyecto Cocecha Nuestra/Our Harvest Project $150,000 Chicano Federation of San Diego County, Inc., San Diego, CA The goals of this project in Escondido, CA are to meet the food needs of low-income Hispanics, increase the ability of communities to meet their own food needs through entrepreneurial and policy incentives, and promote opportunities to address farm, food, and nutrition issues. The project will establish a Hispanic-oriented juice bar to provide fruit and vegetable juice and nutrition education, form a community-centered agricultural cooperative, and use public incentive policies to encourage local landowners to loan their properties for community gardens. Collaborators: City of Escondido, Palomar- Pomerado Health Systems, Escondido Community Health Center, Downtown Business Association, Hanson Realty, University of California Master Gardener Program, Escondido Community Garden. Contact: Pamela Johannsen (619 236-1228) Berkeley Community Food Security Council $175,000 Center for Ecoliteracy, Berkeley, CA The objective of this project is to develop a food policy for the city of Berkeley, CA and a comprehensive plan for implementing it. The project will create a garden-based school food economy in two of Berkeley's most impoverished neighborhoods. Collaborators: Berkeley Unified School District; Tom Bates; Chez Panisse Foundation; East Bay Community Foundation; California Food Policy Advocates; Ecology Center; Berkeley Community Gardens Collaborative; Berkeley Food Systems Council; Berkeley Youth Advocates; Garden to the Table; Berkeley Emergency Food Project; Berkeley Oakland Support Services; Berkeley Lifelong Medical Center; Haas School of Business and School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley; Alice Waters, Chef and proprietor of Chez Panisse. Contact: Tom Bates (510 548-8467) Community Enterprise and Food Security Project $145,000 San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, San Francisco, CA The San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG) has built crop-scale urban gardens on abandoned lots adjacent to public housing developments, and runs youth job-training and employment programs at each of the sites. The youth plant, harvest, and distribute fresh organic produce to the families of the neighboring development. This project will bring together the food production and employment efforts at the public housing gardens with the revenue-generating efforts of SLUG's community-based enterprises. Project staff will carry out detailed community surveys, develop growing plans for each garden site, assist the youth department in expanding program capacity and cohesiveness, build food systems coalitions, and support the development of SLUG food-related enterprises. The purpose of this project is to establish sustainable and measurable community food security for the public housing residents. Contact: Mohammed Nuru (415 285-7584) Park Village Farm Project $125,000 Rural California Housing Corporation, Sacramento, CA This project will develop a self-sustaining farm which is organized and operated by low-income families living in an affordable housing complex, and which provides affordable produce to members of the Asian community in Stockton, CA. Collaborators: Rural California Housing Corporation, Asian Pacific Self-development and Residential Association, Northern California Land Trust, University of California Cooperative Extension Contact: Jeff Kositsky (916 442-4731) The Topeka Common Ground Project $115,000 Kansas Rural Center, Inc., Whiting, KS This project is a comprehensive collaboration of food, university, volunteer, youth, church, rural, and social organizations to improve urban and rural food security in Topeka and vicinity. The project will strengthen existing efforts and develop new partnerships to improve local access to nutritional foods. Urban and rural farmers will develop markets through relationships with city residents, and retailers will gain expertise in marketing local foods. Joint activities will promote sustainable farming practices, economic interdependency, youth leadership, community gardening, and agricultural entrepreneurship. Collaborators: Topeka LULAC Senior Center; Southern Hills Mennonite Church; HiCrest Neighborhood Improvement Association; I-Care, Inc.; Mennonite Voluntary Service; Doorstep, Inc.; Topeka Rescue Mission; Kansas State University Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment (KCARE); Topeka Food Cooperative; Rolling Prairie Farmers Alliance; County Fair Tomato Cooperative; City of Topeka; Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, Kansas Center for Rural Initiatives. Contact: Daniel L. Nagengast (785 873-3431) Maine Food Security Network $175,000 Maine Coalition for Food Security, Portland, ME The goals of this project are to make nutritious food more accessible to low-income persons, to increase local self-reliance, and to move toward a more sustainable food system. The project will carry out several locally -based activities throughout Maine. In Portland, it will create a community garden network. In other communities, it will create food-system study circles, food policy councils, and community food cooperatives. The project will organize a statewide food security conference and produce a resource guide. Contact: Jim Hanna (207 871-8266) Baltimore Grows $130,000 The Center for Poverty Solutions, Inc., Baltimore, MD This project will create market gardens in east and west Baltimore with access to markets. The project seeks to improve Baltimore's food system and help low-income residents move from food dependence to food self-reliance by increasing their capacity to grow food for themselves and for sale, providing job opportunities and building job skills, improving nutrition by increasing access to inexpensive and healthy produce, linking market gardeners with potential markets, and promoting comprehensive responses to local food and nutrition issues through partnerships and long-term planning. Collaborators: Parks and People Foundation, Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition, Washington Village Pigtown Neighborhood Planning Council, Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future, Maryland Cooperative Extension Service, Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore, Long-term Ecological Research Project, Maryland Department of Agriculture Contact: Robert V. Hess (410 366-0600) Ext. 108 Break-Thru Community Food Security Project $195,000 Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Columbia, MO The purpose of this project is to build the capacity of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center's direct-marketing programs and community-based food cooperatives to the point of self-sufficiency. The project builds on a family-farmer economic development project that links independent family farmers with livestock and produce markets. The project will create new part- time distribution and sales jobs for low-income community residents, and expand the food cooperative program's capacity to provide high-quality and nutritional food to low-income rural Missourians. Contact: Rhonda Perry (573 449-1336) Crow Community Garden Project $150,000 Little Big Horn College, Crow Agency, MT The Crow Indian Reservation has a high unemployment rate and a large number of families living in poverty. Four of the five leading causes of death are diet-related. This project will encourage families to grow their gardens to augment existing food sources, develop a 5-acre garden and two greenhouses to grow produce year-round for local sale, and use these facilities to train community residents. The objectives are to increase access to fresh produce on the Crow reservation, provide education and resources to encourage community self-reliance, and increase opportunities to obtain job skills in horticulture, agriculture, marketing, and business. Contact: Mardell Plainfeather (406 638-7223) School-based Fruit and Vegetable Markets: Linking Food, Agriculture and Entrepreneurship $175,000 Black United Fund of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA The goal of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate a model for the creation of school-based fruit and vegetable markets in inner-city communities. These markets will be run by students with support from teachers, community residents, and business and health partners. The markets will provide access to fresh food for low-income urban residents while providing opportunities and training for young entrepreneurs. The model will be designed and implemented at William Penn Demonstration High School in north Philadelphia, a low-income community in Philadelphia's Empowerment Zone. Collaborators: William Penn Demonstration High School, Allegheny University of Health Sciences, Regional Infrastructure for Sustaining Agriculture Project, Fresh Fields Whole Food Market, Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, Drexel University, Farmer's Market Trust. Contact: Linda Richardson (215 236-2100) New Connections $80,000 Farmers' Market Trust, Philadelphia, PA The goals of this project are to create long-term partnerships between small family farmers, inner-city markets, and an entrepreneurial non-profit organization with expertise in business marketing; increase awareness among low-income children and adults of the benefits and availability of locally- grown fruits and vegetables; and improve access in low-income communities to affordable and locally grown produce. Collaborators: Hartford Food System, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont, Red Tomato. Contact: R. Duane Perry (215 568-0830, Ext. 11) The Beardsley Farm Project $32,000 Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee, Knoxville, TN This project will establish an urban farm to produce vegetables, fruit, berries, demonstration grain crops, and honey. It will provide nutrition education programs, provide on-farm summer jobs for youth, and work with community youth groups to operate a greenhouse, plant gardens, maintain beehives, manage a farmstand, and market produce from area farmers. Collaborators: City of Knoxville, Knoxville Community Development Corporation, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service, SOAR Youth Ministries, Rivendell Farms, CAC Americorps, The Knox County Farm Bureau, Tennessee Department of Human Service, The Private Industry Council, Maynard School, Knox County Schools Food Service, Moses Teen Center, Knox County Health Department Nutrition Services, Greater Knoxville Nutrition Council, TNCEP, Knox County Soil Conservation District, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Knoxville Food Cooperative, Minnewawa Manufacturing Company, Second Harvest Food Bank, University of Tennessee Community Partnership Center. Contact: Gail P. Harris (423 546-3500) Food, Farm, & Family Development Project $95,000 Narrow Ridge Center, Washburn, TN This project in rural communities of Grainger County, TN will work with low-income mothers to improve their food-growing, preparation, preservation, and marketing skills. This will provide a source of income for the participating mothers, and supplement food growing and preparation skills. The objective of the project is to increase community self-reliance and raise self-esteem among low-income women. Collaborators: Narrow Ridge Center, University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service, Family & Community Educator Club, Grainger County Health Department, Grainger County News, Washburn Community Library, North Side Community Task Force. Contact: Mike Sosadeeter (423 497-2753) Operation Breadbasket $124,000 Washington Area Gleaning Network, Alexandria, VA This project will establish an integrated regional gleaning network that organizes and links the rural food producers in the region with food consumers in low-income communities in urban areas. The network will serve northern Virginia, Washington, DC, Maryland, Delaware, and southern Pennsylvania. The goal is to increase access to affordable nutritious foods from agricultural breadbaskets, and to develop the infrastructure in the region for sustainable access by low-income populations while developing leadership in entrepreneurial skills by involving youth and children. Collaborators: Capital Area Community Food Bank, United Planning Organization, Baltimore Area Gleaning Network, Southern Maryland Regional Farmers Market, Howard County Economic Development Authority, Washington DC Regional Cannery for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Time Dollar Institute, Congressional Hunger Center, Beyond Food DC/Americorps Program Contact: Thomas R. Chandler (703 780-7809) Youth Market Gardens $65,000 Church Council of Greater Seattle, Seattle, WA Since 1995, Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW) University District market garden program has prepared 115 homeless and at-risk youth for self-reliance by training them in employment skills through horticulture. This project will replicate this program in another part of Seattle, build a greenhouse-based produce business, and develop the program curriculum to share nationally. Collaborators: Central Area Motivation Program, University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture, Washington State University Cooperative Extension, University District Farmers Market, University District Teen Feed, Samorina Greens, Organizational Research Services. Contact: Margaret Hauptman (206 525-1213, ext. 3131) # October 16, 1998