After School All Stars: Our $2,500 grant went to support healthy cooking and nutrition classes for students in six high-need D.C. public middle schools.

Four Eleven Kitchen, Inc. - $5,000 - Supporting the “Feed the People” program to create a community teaching garden for economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in a space donated by Habitat for Humanity. (Cambridge, MD)

After School All Stars - $2,500 - Supporting after-school healthy cooking and nutrition classes for students in six high-need public middle schools in the District of Columbia. (Washington D.C.)

Baltimore Outreach Services - $2,500 - Supporting the “Cooking and Conversations” lifeskills course for homeless women in the shelter, focusing on participants’ relationship with food while building their knowledge of cooking techniques. (Baltimore, MD)

Crossroads Community Food Network - $2,500 - Supporting the Microenterprise Development Program, which provides disadvantaged/low-income BIPOC food entrepreneurs with the skills and technical assistance they need to start and operate successful businesses. (Langley Crossroads/Takoma, MD)

Dog Tag Inc. - $2,500 - Supporting a training fellows program based in a women-led bakery for veterans (63% women) transitioning from military service into civilian life. Our funds will support 16 fellows in Cohort 18. (Washington, D.C.) 

La Cocina VA, $5,000. La Cocina creates careers by offering bilingual, vocational and technical education to underserved people of color, especially women. It also provides nutritious meals to those in need. The funding will support women in the organization’s Culinary Training Program to gain skills, certification and jobs, and women in its Small Business Incubator Program to start or expand food businesses. It will also help pay for student uniforms, training/study materials, certification costs, food used in training, and staff salaries.


Feed the Fridge, $5,000. Feed the Fridge places refrigerators in public spaces around greater Washington D.C. and pays local restaurants to fill them daily with fresh meals. The grant will provide meals for the fridge at Mary’s Center. Mary’s Center is a low- and no-cost community health clinic that sees 160 patients daily, more than half of whom are females of childbearing age who visit the prenatal health providers. Both Feed the Fridge and Mary’s Center are led by women.

Community Farm Share, $5,000. Community FarmShare is focused on food equity and providing healthy fresh produce to families who do not have access to it due to its cost and lack of availability in their communities. It provides culturally appropriate recipe cards with the fresh produce bags and encourages parents to cook with their children. The produce is provided each week to the same families, who have children in a school that is 65% Hispanic, 25% Black and 10% other racial and ethnic identities.     

The Grants Committee is delighted to announce the first round of grant applications have been reviewed and approved by the Board. And the recipients are:

La Cocina VA - $5,000 To support women in their Culinary Training Program, which offers comprehensive services to reduce the barriers that low-income, immigrant, and women of color face to access training opportunities, gain employment, and lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty. Click here for more information.

Community Bridges - $2,500 To support female high school students in under resourced communities through their College and Career Planning Program, and through our grant, to offer opportunities to explore career options in food and hospitality. Click here for more information.

Baltimore Outreach Services - $1,500 To support their Culinary Arts Training Program which is available to women in their shelter as well as those who have transitioned to housing. The training program provides women with the skills they need to pursue a career in commercial food service. Click here for more information. 

We dispersed three grants and our recipients are excited to share current developments and plans for the future.
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La Cocina Va (awarded $5,000) is expanding services to its culinary Small Business Incubator for low income entrepreneurs, including funding for advertising, developing and supplying training materials, and hiring a coordinator to oversee social media and its shared kitchen for food businesses.
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Baltimore Outreach Services (awarded $1,500), a shelter for women overcoming homelessness, completed the first eight-week culinary arts training program of the year, of which two graduates were offered employment with the cruising ship, The Spirit of Baltimore. They are currently in the second eight-week rotation and added an introductory course, “Cooking and Conversation,” a program focused on food mindfulness and self care with Chef April DuBose.

Community Bridges (awarded $2,500), a non-profit organization empowering girls and young women from diverse backgrounds, plans to dedicate funds to their college and career program which assists recent high school graduates. 

Crossroads Community Food Network's Young Women's Summer Cooking Club - Crossroads' Young Women's Cooking Club strives to connect at-risk, teen-aged women in the Takoma/Langley communities to healthy eating information and access, culinary skills, and unique farm to table experiences to further strengthen their simultaneous participation as Crossroads' volunteers. Our grant funds will cover ingredient and supply costs for cooking classes, as well as scholarship funds for ServSafe Food Handler certification. Upon completion of the program, each participant will also receive a gift certificate in the form of produce vouchers for the market.

Campus Kitchens Project at University of Maryland Eastern Shore's Rockville Campus  - The Campus Kitchens Project is a service program for students in UMES's Hospitality and Tourism Management program that delivers fresh, healthy, kid-friendly family-sized meals to families experiencing homelessness. CKP collaborates with The Dwelling Place, a supportive housing agency, Wells Robinson, a sober living community, and Nourish Now, a food rescue organization. Our grant will be used to support ingredient and meal production costs, as well as leadership training opportunities for the volunteer students.
 
Eco City Farms  - Eco City is a nonprofit urban agriculture and educational center located in Prince Georges County, Maryland that serves the predominately low income and working-class communities of color adjacent to their two farms in Bladensburg and Edmonston.  Eco City experienced significant damage to its growing spaces this winter from the record cold weather and wind storms that reduced their capacity to grow and distribute healthy food and to protect new seedlings from cold. Our grant will be used to repair, replace, and reinforce all growing spaces and structures.
 
WANDA (Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture) - WANDA empowers women and girls of African descent in food, agriculture and nutrition through mentorship, service leadership, and training opportunities. Our grant will support the development of programming for WANDA's Sisterhood of the Soil retreat at Black Dirt Farm in Calvert County and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Museum, as well as Little Wanda Garden Day in Ward 8.