Awarded Grants

The renewed support for the "Farming for the Working Class" will further increase agriculture production in the homestead by training an additional 24 participants and creating another 12 new farms within the Waimea Hawaiian Homestead. Creating an additional 12 farms to build on the progress made with the 12 already trained, allowing the community to leverage their combined production to reach the economies of scale needed to access some of the larger local markets and begin to have a larger impact on food security in Hawaii.

The overall mission of the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College Sustainable Agriculture Research Station is to create opportunities and challenges for students to learn and work with staff, community members and Elders in a sustainable agricultural setting to increase access to healthy, nutritious food; thus improving food security and overall health in a low-socioeconomic tribal community. Education and research activities in a multi-generational learning environment will encourage community members to take ownership over where their food comes from. Community members will have access to land and resources for research, experimentation, and implementation of sustainable agricultural practices and products.

The intent of the project is to increase the organizational capacity of the Hopi Education Endowment Fund (HEEF) by creating a process to engage all board members in a face-to-face dialog to develop a strategic plan and increase the capacity of all HEEF board members. Creating a new process will increase and retain the organizational knowledge and engage all board members in a way that is meaningful to the organization, the board member and the HEEF constituents. Ultimately the project will build the capacity to protect, manage and control the fund.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) create a program in which the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's Community members can participate to learn and use the concepts and methods in sustainable food production and seed saving using the First Nations' heirlooms, 2) significantly increase the number of Community members familiar with them. Further, this project will help us utilize and even leverage/expand an existing outreach efforts in learning about and retaining the wealth and diversity of Southwest Tribe's heirloom seeds, because the new project will provide training and a venue where Community Members can learn to buy/prepare healthy food, supported by our partners' technical assistance, while bolstering our ongoing fundraising capability.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) increase Board of Directors participation to leverage external funding sources; improve visibility and mission of the organization, understand roles/responsibility of board of directors, utilize board of directors skills in creating future projects relating to mission of organization, understand and retain fiduciary responsibility of BOD 2) provide Staff technical training in the following areas: financial/book keeping literacy, office management procedures, reporting guidelines, utilize staff managerial skills in planning for future and current projects, increase participation with current and future projects and 3) increase marketing potentials for Fiber Artisans working with value added products. Utilize and retain Fiber Artisans skills in creating value added products. Understanding the business of selling products to include: labeling products, customer service, inventory count of merchandise before and after a show sale, tax rates, creating business cards and learning about e-commerce sales.

The ultimate purpose is to 1) retain the production of produce, 2) utilize an existing three-acre garden area to expand its distribution of produce, and 3) increase our existing volunteer program, which will provide basic skills in collecting and distributing produce.