Seeds to Start Grant Program

Spring 2018: 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.

Fall 2018: 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.

Spring 2019: 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.”

Fall 2019: 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.

Spring 2020: 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.

Fall 2020: 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.

Spring 2021: 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.

Fall 2021: 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.

Spring 2022: 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 will be used to purchase parts to increase the bikes’ carrying capacity and make them commuter friendly so their new owners can use them to 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. We’re excited to contribute and keep it rolling!