The Seed Project Foundation 2020 Grantees
January 31, 2020
After reviewing applications from several North Texas nonprofits that share our mission of creating a more sustainable future, we have selected six grant award winners from our application process for 2020!
Please note that these are not our only grantees for the year; we will soon reveal two more exciting causes we’ve chosen to support with two unique events you won’t want to miss. Be sure to join our mailing list because once they go on sale, tickets won’t last long.
Our first grantee of the year, as previously announced, is Empty Bowls McKinney. In partnership with Community Lifeline Center, Empty Bowls McKinney helps individuals and families in our community experiencing food insecurity get back on their feet by providing a food pantry (among other services).
With our grant, Empty Bowls and Community Lifeline Center aim to extend the open hours of the food pantry to increase the availability to those working full time jobs and help more people. Their annual fundraiser will be held at MPAC on April 30th, and we encourage you to join us there! Until then, every time you round your check up to the nearest dollar (or more) at Harvest or Rick’s Chophouse, the change will be donated to Empty Bowls McKinney.
Our next 2020 Grantee is our neighbor on the square in Historic Downtown McKinney, Hugs Cafe. Founder Ruth Thompson established the nonprofit restaurant to provide meaningful training and competitively paid employment to adults with special needs, a vastly under served population. Hugs has grown to include a Prep Program that prepares participants for employment outside the cafe, and a greenhouse program that sells blooms in the spring and summer.
Hugs Cafe will be using the grant funds to update their website and include an e-commerce function, so they can start shipping those amazing cookies all over the country! The added e-commerce function will bring in funds to sustain their programs, employ more adults with special needs, and increase their exposure nationally.
Texas Master Naturalist (and Meadow Manager) Bob Mione has been volunteering for years at the Connemara Conservancy, a 72-acre nature preserve on the border of nearby Allen and Plano. The Master Naturalists have spearheaded efforts to restore the property to it’s former Blackland Prairie, removing harmful invasive species and reestablishing native grasses and wildflowers. It’s painstaking work extending right through the heat of the summer, as the freshly transplanted and seeded plots require tending and irrigation.
With the grant funds, the Connemara Conservancy will be able to expand their existing irrigation system and buy more seeds, ultimately more than doubling the amount of native grass grown from seed in their plots. As the native plants grow they provide cover and nesting habitats for birds and food for insects, replenishing another layer of the ecosystem.
Grow North Texas has figured out how to do something we have talked about for a long time: how can we put a garden in every school, and have it be successful? The average school garden is started by one passionate teacher, and lasts only a couple of years until they burn out or move. Farmer Kim Aman and Grow North Texas have created a program they call Grow, Garden, Grow that works with the school, establishing buy-in from a team of garden leaders, providing teachers with curriculum and grant funding sources for garden maintenance, and off they go!
Our grant will enable Grow North Texas to execute a pilot program in four Title 1 schools in Dallas County over a two year period, to test the program and work out the kinks. Over 2,000 children will be exposed to a garden in the pilot program alone; after that, the sky’s the limit! We will get a garden into every school in North Texas!
With two locations in East Dallas, Good Local Markets stands by its farmers. The markets are strictly grower-only, meaning no wholesale produce can be bought and resold as “local” at the market. Lately, the Good Local staff have noticed an increasing disconnect between market goers expectations of “local produce,” and the actual crops that suit our challenging North Texas growing conditions.
Good Local Markets plans to use the grant funds for a marketing campaign about their farmers and seasonality, creating recipe cards and social media campaigns to educate the public on what’s in season, what can actually be grown locally, and how to prepare it. Ultimately this will increase knowledge and awareness about local farming to increase sales direct from the farmers at the markets.
Blue Sky Therapeutic Riding and Respite is on a mission to provide a safe, happy, and healthy therapeutic community that works to empower our special needs citizens and their families to their fullest potential. Therapeutic horsemanship is only one of many ways they achieve this; program participants create art together, cook, work in the garden, and create artisanal goods for sale to sustain their programs.
With the grant funds, Blue Sky can finish their PURPOSE program mercantile, a vintage grain silo turned boutique for their wares. In turn, the mercantile will provide jobs for the participants and raise funds to sustain and grow their programs.
Thank you to our winners and to everyone who applied for a grant this year. It’s truly inspiring to see all the incredible work being done in our community to make it a better place in a sustainable way, without compromising future generations. Our next grant application period will open October 1st, 2020 and run through the end of the year. You can help us fund more incredible causes like these by making a donation today!