Moonflower Community Cooperative envisions the cultivation of holistic community wellness, which has motivated us to create the Seeds to Start grant program. The Moab community faces numerous challenges while also benefiting from the passion, diligence, and bold imagination of its vibrant community members. We hope the Seeds to Start grant program can offer unique opportunities to motivated community members and organizations seeking positive changes and innovative solutions in our community.
Our grant program funds community development projects throughout Southeast Utah, including Moab, Spanish Valley, Castle Valley, Monticello, Blanding, Bluff, Green River, and any rural communities in between. We do prioritize projects in or near the Moab valley, but we welcome applicants throughout the region. We want to support our neighbors in this vast, rural high desert region!
Funds will be disbursed to non-profit organizations or grassroots organizations sponsored by an existing non-profit. Individuals or groups without 501(c)3 status seeking to complete a project should request a letter of recommendation from their sponsoring non-profit and attach it below along with their budget proposal.
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Preferred projects focus on (1) expanding local food production, (2) fostering community food security, (3) promoting environmental justice, and/or (4) directly benefiting historically under served segments of our community.
The Moonflower Co-op grant selection committee, consisting of employees and Board members, will prioritize grant applications from organizations that are less established and have limited access to funding. Our committee members consider (1) how completely the applicant has addressed the application’s questions, (2) the financial needs and organizational capacity of the applicant, and (3) how closely the application aligns with the focus areas listed above.
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HOW TO APPLY:
All applicants must provide a 500-1,000 word project proposal and a detailed budget spreadsheet. Funds will be disbursed in a single sum of up to $1,000. Grant recipients will be required to submit receipts and a report on the project’s progress one year after the funds have been disbursed.
Click here to apply online.
Click here to download and print the application form. Or, pick up a paper copy from the co-op.
Spring deadline: May 15th
Fall deadline: November 15th
Please contact [email protected] for more information.
Past Seeds to Start Grant recipients:
Our fall 2024 grant recipient was the Wellness Collective!
The Wellness Collective is dedicated to fostering equitable access to health and wellness resources within the greater Moab community. Their mission is to cultivate a thriving community where every individual has the opportunity to reach their full potential through holistic well-being, self-care, and mental health support. The Wellness Collective seeks to inspire positive change and provide sustainable wellness opportunities for those they serve.
The Seeds to Start Grant funds will go towards their Meal Support Circle, the purpose of which is to provide preventative and early intervention nutritional health services that address disordered eating, food disparity, and nutrition education in the Moab community. Participants of this weekly program will engage in hands-on meal preparation and educational discussions with local experts on nutrition and health topics. This program is designed to address the food literacy education gap, promote and reduce barriers to a healthy lifestyle, reduce food insecurity, and improve community health outcomes. The grant funds will be used to purchase locally sourced ingredients and outreach materials for the program.
Our spring 2024 grant recipient was Utah Foster Care.
Utah Foster Care works to develop innovative strategies to help find, educate, and support Utah foster families. Since its inception in 1999, Utah Foster Care has recruited and trained more than 16,000 families. There are currently 2,100 kids in foster care in Utah and 8 foster families in Grand County. All of Grand County’s foster children (other than those in “kinship care,” or care from relatives) are Native American and placed with nonnative families.
Funds from this grant will go towards a new retention development program implemented at a local level by the Moab office. The program will focus on connecting cultures by hosting monthly dinners for the children and their families. These dinners will provide opportunities for the children and families to learn about and connect with Native foods, culture, and each other. The funds will be used to purchase traditional indigenous food ingredients for the dinners and to rent the kitchen space at the Youth Garden Project.
Our fall 2023 grant recipient was the Moab Area Community Land Trust. MACLT is a non-profit community land trust working to create permanent affordable housing in the Moab community for generations to come by preserving land held in trust in the area.
The funding from the Seeds to Start Grant will be used to acquire materials to build a deer fence to protect the community garden at MACLT’s affordable housing development in Spanish Valley, Arroyo Crossing. They are working with a past recipient of the grant, Moab Community Gardens, to prepare the garden for the winter and for planting next spring. They will also be partnering with students of the Grand County High School Student Career and Success Center, who will help finish the installation the irrigation and create a bulletin board for the garden.
This grant funding will provide low- and moderate-income residents of Grand County the opportunity to learn about and experience home gardening, local food systems, and healthy eating. We are excited to support an initiative that will create a more resilient and interconnected community and greater access to locally grown foods!
Canyonlands Field Institute’s mission is “to provide quality outdoor education on the Colorado Plateau, to inspire care of wild places, and renew the human spirit.”
CFI plans to use this funding to provide nutritious food for their Mental Health Hikes, which were recently featured in the Moab Sun News. This program offers opportunities for participants to not only reap the benefits of being in nature, but to do so intentionally with mental health professionals guiding them to be mindful of their experience.
This funding will make nourishing, healthy food available at no cost to more folks, easing that financial burden, making the hikes even more accessible to all and further supporting the participants’ holistic health.
Moab Community Gardens is an organization previously under the umbrella of local non-profit the Resiliency Hub, now under the Youth Garden Project (as of January 2024). Its mission is “to support local food security by providing growing spaces to the community, so that individuals with limited or no access to land or gardening resources may have an affordable opportunity to grow food for themselves and their families.” They currently manage community gardens at East Bench Road and Our Village Community Center with plots for 30+ gardeners/families.
MoCom Gardens used this grant funding to purchase materials for their newest community garden, located in downtown Moab at the WabiSabi Thrift Store. This new site (which also includes a public “U-Pick” row) was “a fabulous success in intersecting growing space and locally grown food with the Moab community and people in need of fresh produce.” The priority for this new site was accessibility, which was achieved with the garden’s downtown location, and by offering the opportunity to garden to those without arable land or water access, short-term renters, and those with fewer transportation options. The raised beds also were meant to assist those who have trouble working at ground level.
Read the whole report from MoCom Gardens founder and previous manager Becky Mann here.
Our spring 2022 grant recipient was Moab Community Cycles! Moab Community Cycles is a new grassroots project that provides bikes and maintenance to underserved community members who otherwise wouldn’t have access to these goods and services. This grant funding was used to purchase parts to increase the carrying capacity of community members’ bikes and some that have been donated to folks in need. Moab Community Cycles held a Community Basket Day to install equipment to make these bikes more commuter friendly so their owners can use them for reliable, healthy transportation and for carrying groceries and other goods. We believe this project has great potential to directly reach local community members in need and positively impact their health, wellness, and autonomy.
Read more from the grant report here.
Our fall 2021 Seeds to Start Grant recipient was Grand Area Mentoring. Grand Area Mentoring is a school–based mentoring program that serves youth from kindergarten through 12th grade. The program matches carefully screened adult volunteers with children seeking friendship and guidance. Mentors and mentees meet weekly for one hour and in these sessions build positive relationships, strengthen the mentee’s self-esteem, and help the student form a better attachment to school.
Grand Area Mentoring used these funds to implement a “Seeds for Mentees” project. The funds provided gift cards for 25 mentors to bring their mentees into Moonflower to create a unique bonding experience and purchase food to eat during other mentoring activities, such as snacks for a hike or ingredients to cook a healthy meal together. They were able to explore the cooperative while discussing and learning about natural foods, healthy cooking, local food systems and farms, careers in the food industry, and more. Read the report and view photos from these experiences here.
Our spring 2021 Seeds to Start Grant recipient was the Resiliency Hub. This local non-profit’s mission is “to steward dynamic public learning hubs to inspire community resilience initiatives in Moab.” They do this through holistic waste management initiatives, offering and managing community garden spaces for residents, and managing their public permaculture pocket park on 100 West, the CommuniTea Garden.
Our fall 2020 Seeds to Start Grant recipient was Our Village Community Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to youth education, health promotion, and environmental sustainability. The goal of their project was to improve the quality of their chickens’ living conditions and increase their egg production. They were able to purchase new fencing, higher protein feed, and new chicks to replace some hens that had been preyed upon. Their weekly Chicken Club, a hands-on educational program for local Moab youth, assisted with the project, including researching egg layer scratch recipes, installing new fencing, researching and selecting hen breeds, and raising and integrating the new chicks into the flock.
Thanks to this funding, these chickens are safe, happy, and healthy, and participants of the Chicken Club were able to gain some valuable experience in animal husbandry. Our Village’s youth programs, elderly neighbors, and volunteers gather their eggs to share with the Moab community. Check out more highlights from their grant report here.
Our spring 2020 Seeds to Start Grant recipient, the Moab Manna COVID-19 Relief Farm executed by volunteers with the Moab Seventh-Day Adventist Church, sent us a great report of their accomplishments. The goal of the project was to bolster food security in Grand County and aid those in need of food assistance due to the coronavirus pandemic. With the help of our $1000 grant, they were able to purchase machinery that helped them sow, grow, harvest, and distribute tens of thousands of potatoes to the Utah State Food Bank, the Navajo Nation, Daystar Academy, the Moab Episcopal Food Pantry, the Grand County Food Bank, and local community volunteers and needs. Another pleasant outcome of the “Grand Potato Hunt” was the beneficial reprieve for volunteers who had otherwise had limited outdoor and human interaction due to COVID restrictions.
Our fall 2019 grant recipient was the Full Circle Intertribal Center, whose mission is to “nourish healing through our Native American traditions and cultures.” Their grant funding went towards developing their organization and their Nourishing Traditions program. This program promotes wellness and learning about Indigenous food systems, and traditional life ways and food ways.
Our spring 2019 grant recipient was the Clay Artisans of Moab, “a Moab-based, loosely organized group of mostly introverted ceramists who come together to bring their craft to the community.” Their grant funding went towards purchasing equipment for their annual Soup Bowl Fundraiser. The 2019 event was held on November 2nd and was a huge success, allowing CLAM to donate over $9,100 to the Moab Free Health Clinic’s diabetes education and food voucher program. From CLAM’s report:
“The award of the Seeds to Start Grant was a huge help… The funds allowed us to purchase proper equipment for food service, with the assurance that we don’t need to scour the town in search of equipment each year. These acquisitions helped us by reducing our work load and our food presentation was elevated.”
Our fall 2018 grant recipient was Moab Community Gardens, an organization whose mission is to “develop sustainable, organic community gardens for the benefit of Moab and Spanish Valley residents, creating welcoming spaces for people of all abilities and backgrounds.” Read highlights from their 2019 grant report here.
Our first grant recipient was the Moab Valley Multicultural Center, who used the funding to enhance their youth programs by providing nutritious, culture specific to Multicultural Mondays campers and fresh, organic veggie trays for Amiguitos mentors and mentees.