Using the interest generated by our participation in the Cooperative Community Fund, The Food Co-op will offer small grants to qualifying, local nonprofits to help them grow a healthy community.

Our grants are focused on the four pillars of community sharing:

1. Improving food access

2. Sustainable agriculture (both land and sea stewardship)

3. Healthy kids, families and animals

4. Supporting the cooperative model

Hear from last year’s winner the Jefferson County Anti-Racist Fund.

JCARF is a community supported reparations and mutual aid project focused on the individual and collective wellness of our local community of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We raise funds and in kind contributions from folks who benefit from white privilege and distribute these resources among the BIPOC community.

Our free weekly CSA program serves as a tangible manifestation of our reparations work. Every week during the growing season, our CSA coordinator curates the JCARF CSA shares with a mix of donated items from local white-owned farms and products purchased from PGM (People of the Global Majority) farmers and food producers. The shares are always a bit different and always beautiful, including fresh seasonal veggies and fruits, flower bouquets, bread, dairy, eggs, sweet treats, herbal medicines, and preserved foods like sauerkraut. The shares have also included gifts from the Priority Love Project (facilitated by local writer and artist Velda Thomas). Once packed, shares are often delivered straight into the hands of their recipients by JCARF volunteers. 

This is a reparations project, meant to support and uplift the People of the Global Majority in our community who experience daily the impacts of structural racism. Every part of the CSA is healing, for those contributing and putting the CSA together, for those who deliver, those who receive, and those who participate in a mix of ways. The CSA reminds us that we can prioritize joy and reciprocity and sweetness in times of uncertainty. 

The CSA is JCARF's most loved project, and this year has been a busy one! We increased our capacity, expanded the CSA program to deliver food to additional families, and deepened our connection with partnering farms and organizations. The Grow Fund has been utilized to pay local PGM growers and business owners for their products for the CSA boxes, and contributed to the stipend for our dedicated CSA coordinator, honoring their labor. 

We are in the midst of another beautiful CSA season and we are thrilled to see how the project continues to grow and expand through community support. A big thank you to the PT Food Coop for your continued support!

The JCARF Team

For full details about the fund and the application please go to: https://www.foodcoop.coop/grow-fund.

Applications open August 1–31st.