Seedlings
Eastside Food Co-op’s Seedlings program makes it simple for shoppers to support organizations making a positive impact in our community! Shoppers make small donations at the register which add up to meaningful contributions to nonprofit organizations whose work aligns with our store’s mission.
2024 Seedling Recipients
JANUARY
Eastside Meals on Wheels
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Eastside Meals on Wheels serves warm, nutritious meals to older adults and individuals with disabilities in NE Minneapolis, SE Minneapolis and St. Anthony Village.
We deliver food to homebound folks. If they are over 60 and struggle to shop or cook for themselves we offer 5 meals a week at no cost.
FEBRUARY
Northeast Farmers Market
(NEFM)
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The Northeast Farmers Market adds to the livability of the neighborhood by providing a welcoming and accessible community market and gathering place. We contribute to the success of local growers and producers and foster sustainability in the Northeast community.
At Northeast Farmers Market, our mission is to create an enjoyable shopping experience that customers of all ages can enjoy. Since 2000, we’ve provided the Minneapolis community with quality products at very attractive prices. We have something to suit everyone’s taste! Our Farmers' Market is home to a number of local professionals who go above and beyond to give back to the community through the products they offer.
MARCH
Little Kitchen Food Shelf
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The Little Kitchen Food Shelf is a no-boundaries, no-restrictions food shelf serving the Northeast Minneapolis neighborhood and beyond. We serve all people, regardless of income or zip code. In addition, we stock dog and cat food to feed the companion animals of those in need.
The Little Kitchen Food Shelf is unique among area food shelves in many regards; first and foremost, we remove zip code and income limits so that we can serve as many people as possible. We also provide fresh organic produce from our own on-site Grace Gardens as well as from our partnerships with Twin Cities Food Justice and also via our network of local master gardeners. We especially strive to stock our shelves with culturally specific items, so that we can provide needed essentials to our many diverse clients. Additionally, we carry dog and cat food and pet supplies for the furry members of our clients' families!
APRIL
TC Food Justice
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TC Food Justice is a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization working to reduce food waste and hunger in the Twin Cities. We do this by partnering with co-ops, markets, bakeries and farmers to redistribute fresh, unsalable food to hunger relief organizations and food-insecure populations. Since 2016, TCFJ has rescued more than 800,000 pounds of high-quality food, keeping it out of landfills and reducing food waste and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions. With support from more than 200 volunteers, we’ve delivered this food to partners directly serving food-insecure individuals and families throughout the Twin Cities.
Through our Food Rescue Program, TC Food Justice engages a broad range of community members as both partners and volunteers, working across sectors to provide food-insecure populations with regular access to fresh, nutrient-rich foods for free, in safe and welcoming environments, with minimal barriers to access. TCFJ is focused on providing fresh produce with as little as 30 minutes between pick-up and delivery, ensuring the availability of fresh, nutritious food to those who have little access. To date, we have partnered with 35 donor organizations, dozens of local farmers, and 55 hunger relief organizations.
We also provide food directly to those in need through our own innovative food distribution programs, including our Priceless Produce Program, which partners with residents in public housing to provide free pop-up markets, and our Full Fridge Initiative–a partnership with several health and social service organizations to set up free mini food shelves in non-traditional settings such as clinics and transitional housing buildings.
Through our work, we strengthen connections across the Twin Cities food system; build public education around food insecurity and food waste in our communities; and improve access to fresh, nutritious foods, especially for members of our community who experience food insecurity.
MAY
The Good Acre
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Dream of Wild Health is one of the longest continually operating Native American organizations in the Twin Cities. We have grown into a 30-acre organic farm, native fruit orchard and pollinator meadow located in Hugo, Minnesota, with an office in the American Indian cultural corridor in Minneapolis. Our mission is to restore health and well-being in the Native community by recovering knowledge of and access to healthy indigenous foods, medicines, and lifeways. We are building community, sharing Indigenous knowledge, advocating for food sovereignty, hosting workshops and events, and supporting partners.
Dream of Wild Health is celebrating 25 years of working to restore health and wellbeing within the Twin Cities Native American community! We request general operating support to continue our work to restore health and well-being in the Native community by expanding access to Indigenous foods, medicines and lifeways and increasing and deepening the impact of our Native youth leadership programs.
For example, we depend on the generous support of individuals and foundations to keep our youth programs free and accessible to Native youth in our community. Funds through the East Side Food Co-op Seedlings program would enable DWH to reach our annual organizational goals, including:
• Reaching over 12,000 community members through our programs.
• Connecting with at least 70 Native youth through our in-depth summer and Youth Leaders program.
• Graduating 8-10 youth through at least 2 cohorts of our chef apprenticeship program.
• Distributing over 25,000 pounds of organically grown food and value-added products.
• Increasing food access to Native families by subsidizing Indigenous Food Shares to Native families who cannot otherwise afford the food share. Our Indigenous Food Share was reimagined from a traditional CSA model to a more focused approach – the shares are offered only to Native families and have various payment methods to reduce barriers in joining: sliding scale, payment plan, and work share options.
• Supporting the capacity of the Indigenous Food Network through implementing the strategic plan and fundraising to enhance community food distribution efforts.
• Continuing construction on the new land.
JUNE
Dream of Wild Health
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The Good Acre unlocks economic opportunity for farmers in our region, especially those who historically have been excluded from opportunities to make a viable living. Our unique combination of personalized support and market development promotes both economic well-being and a more sustainable, resilient, and community-centered food system. We approach our work through partnerships that create meaningful, long-lasting market access for farmers and food access for our communities.
Our primary goal is to ensure produce farmers, particularly farmers of color and women, receive equitable payment and market access. By working with small, local farms and providing resources around environmentally sustainable growing practices like water retention, soil health, and crop planning, we are working to mitigate some of the negative environmental impacts associated with conventional farming. On the consumer side, we are working to increase access to fresh, local produce through expanded programs and markets. Our LEAFF program, for example, provides culturally relevant local produce to hunger relief sites across the state at no cost. Meanwhile, our wholesale program sells directly to Second Harvest Heartland, which distributes to their agency partners who support food-insecure families and individuals statewide. Our farm share program connects directly with 500 households in the Twin Cities and provides both pay-what-you-can and flexible payment options to help increase access. When we increase equitable market access for growers, we also create a more inclusive food system for eaters.
We are seeking additional funds to scale up our internal processes to appropriately meet the demand for our services. While food access partners are committed to paying fair market value to farmers, we rely on philanthropy to support the significant operations and infrastructure required to aggregate, store, and distribute produce.
JULY
Appetite for Change
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Appetite For Change (AFC) is a community-led organization that strengthens families, creates economic prosperity, and encourages healthy living. Through our innovative, youth-led programs, social enterprise work, and policy initiatives, we build community capacity to make our own change. AFCs programs are all based around a goal of creating health equity and eliminating health disparities in our home community of North Minneapolis and as a model for engaging and elevating all Black communities.
Our mission is to use food as a tool for building health, wealth, and social change. AFC is a community-led organization that strengthens families, creates economic prosperity, and encourages healthy living.
Our seven urban farm sites are tended by youth in our Youth Training Opportunity Program where they learn to grow a variety of produce and learn land conservation. The fresh fruits and vegetables we grow on our farms supply our café, workshops, and are sold at the West Broadway Farmers Market and to kitchen renters, corner stores, and other local vendors. This way food has to travel less which reduces overall environment impact by making sure our community can be self-sustaining and have access to healthy food options. Furthermore, our deep winter greenhouse and hoop house allow us to grow food year round so we can continue to provide accessible and affordable produce to the community.
Environmental justice is at the heart of what we do. We teach youth and community members to be better stewards of the land by making sure we are implementing and teaching about best practices for tending to the soil, land and creatures. Our youth learn about and lead various environmental justice movements, which allows them to gain a deeper understanding of the food system and alternative ways of growing food so they can be advocates for the environment and their communities.
AUGUST
Midwest Food Connection
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Food connects us – with each other, our planet, and ourselves. At Midwest Food Connection, we believe everyone should have the ability and opportunity to grow and consume healthful, affordable, and culturally relevant foods. Unfortunately, marginalized communities often find they have limited access to healthy foods. They are also frequently the target of exploitive food marketing.
For more than 25 years, Midwest Food Connection has been in the classroom, bringing engaging food lessons to life for students in grades K-8. Midwest Food Connection inspires young people to deepen their relationship with food in ways that benefit their bodies, their communities, and the earth. Midwest Food Connection teaches hands-on lessons to students in K-8 classrooms. This past school year, we taught 7,000 students in 30 schools across the Twin Cities. Our award-winning curriculum is prized by educators and parents alike. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture hires Midwest Food Connection to write curriculum for the statewide programming.
Our food education:
Excites youth about healthy eating and developing a love for wholesome, locally grown foods.
Empowers youth to take care of the earth by becoming good stewards of the environment.
Equips youth with life skills like cooking, gardening, shopping wisely, and thinking critically about food systems.
In Northeast Minneapolis, we partner with Eastside to reach into the neighborhoods near to the co-op. Examples include Waite Park, Webster, Heartwood Montessori, and Marcy schools. We are also active at Eastside Co-op, where we lead educational stations in the store and at celebrations. Donations during Seedlings month go directly to increased capacity in Northeast, allowing us to teach more at the neighborhood schools.
SEPTEMBER
Tamales y Bicicletas
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Tamales y Bicicletas is dedicated to strengthening our Latino and immigrant communities through bike projects, green farming, cultural empowerment, and environmental justice.
Tamales y Bicicletas (TyB) is a grassroots organization that works to center Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and People of Color through decolonizing and localizing our food system, community empowerment/resistance, sustainable transportation, and urban farming skills. Our greenhouse and farm aims to support our community by providing fresh crops and nutritious food for food insecure families especially in the winter months. Tamales y Bicicletas has engaged primarily BIPOC families and youth in skill building and empowerment that comes through learning about how culturally appropriate healthy food is grown and learning how to use and fix bikes as a means of green transportation. Tamales y Bicicletas is in partnership with Appetite for Change's winter greenhouse project in North Minneapolis. Through the development of these greenhouses, TyB aims to help Minneapolis urban farms and gardeners around the city have a place to grow greens and start plants earlier. In 2022, TyB has been coordinating with other Latino, BIPOC and Indigenous environmental groups in the twin cities to build solidarity.
OCTOBER
Eastside Food Co-op Community Fund
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Our Cooperative Community Fund is an endowment (similar to a scholarship fund) that is administered through Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation (a 501c3 non-profit organization), which makes donations to our community fund tax deductible. As we put more money in this fund, we accrue more interest. We use the interest gained each year to support organizations working in the food access, agriculture and environmental sectors.
The Eastside Food Co-op Cooperative Community Fund endowment is pooled by Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation with over 40 other food co-op community funds. Twin Pines invests in co-op development organizations. These groups have in turn lent these funds to over 30 US food co-ops. These hard-working funds leverage over $40 million for the development and growth of fellow food co-ops.
NOVEMBER
Division of Indian Work
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The Division of Indian Work (DIW) has been a key contributor to the Native community for 70 years. Our mission is to support and strengthen urban American Indian people through culturally-based education, traditional healing approaches, and leadership development. Our vision is American Indian communities that build upon inherent strengths and create safe, healthy, and nurturing environments in which everyone thrives.
DIW is a key partner of the Indigenous Food Network, which looks to provide access to healthy, Indigenous food to our urban American Indian community. DIW also partners with the Northern Gardener's (MN Horticulture Society) Garden-in-a-box program that provide compost, garden beds and fresh vegetables and herbs to our gardens in our backyard and at our boy's house location. These opportunities can help to reduce the health disparities that are common in Minnesota within the underserved urban American Indian population. Eastside Food Co-op Seedlings funding would be used to specifically provide healthy Indigenous meals to our Men's Anger Managements groups, which meet three (3) times per week for two hours each.
DECEMBER
Sisters' Camelot
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Sisters’ Camelot is a collectively-run nonprofit founded in 1997 that is focused on food justice, waste reduction, sustainable living, community building, and youth education. We rescue food that would otherwise be wasted and share free organic groceries and free organic meals with our community.
Sisters’ Camelot serves our community through two primary programs. We distribute approximately 6,000-8,000 pounds per week of primarily organic groceries in the Twin Cities. We vary distribution locations to serve people where they are, particularly in food deserts. We partner with a wide variety of community organizations that host food distributions and allow us to reach their unique populations. These have included low-income housing, senior housing, substance abuse programs, arts organizations, tribal/indigenous organizations, cultural centers, churches, and more. During the COVID-19 crisis, we have been working with volunteer bike couriers to deliver free groceries to those who are at higher risk of going out during a pandemic, such as the elderly and immunocompromised. We also supply bulk food to a number of nonprofit community kitchens cooking meals for the unhoused, the elderly, and others who are experiencing greater need during the pandemic, as well as local food shelves.
Secondly, we serve free healthy prepared food from a vintage bus that has been converted to a licensed commercial kitchen. As with our grocery distributions, the mobile nature of our operations means that we can reach varied populations and spread the joy of healthy organic food to different neighborhoods. Our kitchen bus allows us to feed people, to nourish the relationships that come through preparing and eating food together, and to impart the value of this to the next generation though our Young Chefs program, which has been put on pause due to COVID-19 but which we hope to resume when it is safe to do so. Our bus has a longstanding presence at various community events such as May Day and the Barebones Halloween Extravaganza. Since public gatherings have been limited due to the pandemic, we shifted to feeding people at the George Floyd memorial site at 38th and Chicago as well as unhoused people living in local encampments.
The food we distribute and cook is rescued from the waste stream. Any produce that is too damaged to use is delivered to be composted in local community gardens, and we recycle the pallets and cardboard used to package the food. Thus our programs both prevent massive amounts of food waste and provide healthy, nutritious food for people in our community who might not otherwise be able to obtain it.
Along with delivering groceries to those who are at higher risk of leaving home, we also supply information in Spanish and English and work with community organizers to make sure undocumented folks know we will share freely regardless of their legal status. This is especially important during the pandemic, since undocumented immigrants have been greatly affected but do not qualify for unemployment, stimulus checks, or other forms of aid.
Seedlings funding would assist our work to bring free organic food to our community. We are 100% volunteer-run, so our overhead is low, but we have unavoidable expenses necessary to acquire and distribute food, such as gas and truck maintenance, insurance, propane and supplies for the kitchen bus, etc. We hope for your support to nourish our neighbors.
Monthly Seedlings Donations
2024
January Eastside Meals on Wheels $1,474.21 raised
February Northeast Farmers Market $1,192.75 raised
March Little Kitchen Food Shelf $7,662.83 raised
April TC Food Justice $1,270.00 raised
May The Good Acre $1,134.26 raised
June Dream of Wild Health $1,077.17 raised
July Appetite for Change $990.75 raised
August Midwest Food Connection $1,079.35 raised
September Tamales y Bicicletas $1,066.15 raised
October Eastside Food Co-op Cooperative Community Fund
November Division of Indian Work
December Sister’s Camelot
2023
January Somali American Farmers Association $1,617.22 raised
February Northeast Farmers Market $1,378.77 raised
March Little Kitchen Food Shelf $8,708.86 raised
April Minnesota Tool Library $1,409.27 raised
May Tamales y Bicicletas $1,170.25 raised
June Save the Boundary Waters $1,311.11 raised
July Sisters’ Camelot $1,199.58 raised
August Appetite for Change $1,256.49 raised
September Eastside Meals on Wheels $1,349.47 raised
October Eastside Food Co-op Cooperative Community Fund $1,231.65 raised
November Division of Indian Work $1,289.97 raised
December Annex Teen Clinic $1,408.70 raised