Earlier this fall, CFF announced the sixteen organizations chosen to receive a grant from the CFF 2020 Food Movement Support Fund.
The Fund invited applications from organizations in NY, NJ, and CT that are led by people most impacted by food injustice and working towards systemic change. The selection committee was blown away by the amazing work represented in the 148 applications we received.
You can read about the grantees here, or on this online map.
On October 28, CFF hosted a webinar to discuss how and why the Fund was created, and to introduce the 16 grantees. You can watch a recording of that webinar in the video below. The slides are visible in the video, but you can also download the slide deck here. The following time markers can be used to jump around to different sections of the video:
- Start – Introduction to the Fund
- 9:40 – Kellie Terry, Program Officer, Surdna Foundation
- 13:20 – The Fund’s decision-making process
- 28:25 – Breakout Room #1
- Alianza Agricola (Geneseo, NY)
- BK ROT (Brooklyn, NY)
- Central Brooklyn Food Coop (Brooklyn, NY)
- Farm School NYC (New York, NY)
- Food for the Spirit (Buffalo, NY)
- Freedom Food Alliance (Germantown, NY)
- The Semilla Collective (New Haven, CT)
- Soul Fire Farm Institute (Petersburg, NY)
- 1:03:50 – Breakout Room #2
- Black Farmer Fund (New York State)
- Brandworkers New Jersey (Maplewood, NJ)
- CTCORE Organize Now! (Hamden, CT)
- Kelly Street Garden (Bronx, NY)
- La Canasta at MMFYC (Bronx, NY) – did not attend
- Rock Steady Farm (Millerton, NY)
- Rockaway Youth Task Force (Far Rockaway, NY)
- Traditional Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Healing (Newfield, NY)
- 1:41:00 – Q&A
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many foundations rightly focused their attention and resources on emergency food supply, economic relief, and other immediate needs that were rapidly increasing. As the crisis continued, and amidst the political uprisings for racial justice, Community Food Funders (CFF) members also wanted to direct a portion of their emergency giving towards groups doing the long-term work of systems change and shifting power in the food system. These groups — led by people of color, engaged in advocacy and organizing, with smaller budgets — are the same that are historically underfunded and so often fall through the cracks of larger relief efforts.
In this recording, watch CFF and the funders who pulled together to create the 2020 Food Movement Support Fund, the first pooled fund in CFF’s nine-year history, to hear about why and how they are supporting food justice organizations across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. From community-centered bike-powered composting to supporting black farmers and food businesses, to utilizing farm resources to end mass incarceration, come and meet some of the grantees doing this vital work.
This was the first endeavor into pooled grantmaking for Community Food Funders, and we are so grateful to everyone who applied and who helped to spread the word.
More About the Fund
The CFF 2020 Food Movement Support Fund was established as a one-time grant making program to support grassroots food justice organizations in our region. General operating grants of $10,000 were awarded based on smaller budget size, leadership from impacted communities, and a systems change approach to the work.