Grant Application for
Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities
Mission Statement:
The Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, a non-profit based in NW MI since 1995, works to protect and enhance what makes this region special: our lively towns and cities, our clean water, our farm and forest landscape, and the community. We collaborate respectfully with citizens and leaders to protect what we love about MI. Our work is member-driven and member-funded. We focus on solutions that improve daily life and build community health through food, energy, transportation, economy.
Fiscal agent if applicant is not tax exempt:
Tax ID Number:
38-2314954
Contact First Name:
Contact Last Name:
Jen
Schaap
Address:
313 Howard St., Unit B, Petoskey, MI. 49770
Email:
Phone Number:
231-941-6584 x708
Website:
Project Name:
Building Resilient Communities in Emmet & Charlevoix
Project start and end dates:
June 1, 2021
June 1, 2022
Amount Requested:
$
4000
Project Description:
Groundwork will support 1 women-centric site in Emmet/Charlevoix Co as part of our Building Resilient Communities (BRC) pilot. Groundwork aids BRC sites with procurement, promotion, or education around local food, and provides a $2,000 stipend to buy items that meet the goals that Groundwork and the site develop. Action plans include purchasing refrigerators to hold fresh, local food, water dispensers to reduce sugary drinks, cooking classes in scratch cooking, culinary training for staff, kitchen tools, connecting with local farmers, and other infrastructure, education, and promotion. By providing sites with strategy, tools, and funds to increase healthy, local food, we promote the long-term health of the community and contribute to the network of support needed to sustain local farmers. BRC uses Groundwork’s experience in food systems to collaborate with sites to create feasible, strong, site-specific solutions, making it easier for sites to connect clients with healthy, local food.
Goal of the Project
How many people will you reach?
47
What percentage are female?
100
If your program serves both males and females, how will Hestia funds specifically target women and girls?
While BRC will be available to all, funds from Hestia will be used for women-centric sites. The Women’s Resource Center of Petoskey is a potential site starting this fall and we will reach out to them in August to continue conversations. Should they be unable to participate, several other potential sites that serve women have also been identified, such as food pantries that serve proportionately higher amounts of women. There are also opportunities to partner directly with women farmers who have creative ideas for increasing community food access, but could use additional financial and programmatic support in achieving their goals. Ultimately, there are several opportunities to ensure Hestia funds are directed to support the well-being and economic success of women in Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
How are recipients identified or selected to receive services? Is financial need considered?
Since Sept. 2020, Groundwork has carefully put together a framework for how to identify potential BRC sites. BRC targets geographic areas with high need, determined by poverty and free-and-reduced lunch rates. These geographic areas are targeted because high poverty rates are indicative of higher rates of diet-related diseases, as stated in the Food Research and Action Center's report, "The Impact of Poverty, Food Insecurity, and Poor Nutrition on Health and Well-Being.” Once the geographic area is identified, sites offering a community food service, such as food pantries, retail, cafeterias, farms, youth/senior centers, and congregate meals sites, are interviewed to determine the site’s audience, reach, need, overlap potential, ripple effect potential, and interest in offering clients more local, healthy food. All are among the metrics assessed to determine which sites would have the highest impact as a BRC participant. 20 sites have been identified in Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
What do you hope to achieve? What difference will this make in the lives of women and girls?
How will this project meet Hestia's mission statement?
We hope to strengthen community resilience and the local economy by bolstering nutritious, local food access through partnerships with women-centric sites and increasing market channels for women farmers.
Increasing partner agencies’ capacities to offer and educate on local, nutritious food, will help women thrive by meeting their bodies’ nutritional needs. We will target area food pantries, which we can infer from the ALICE report serve higher proportions of women. Single-mother households are most likely to be within the poverty and ALICE threshold. Also, the Women’s Resource Center has indicated interest in being a BRC site this fall.
BRC also promotes the economic self-sufficiency of women by highlighting women-run farms. BRC has the flexibility to partner directly with women-run farms, like Open Sky, Spirit of Walloon, and Bluestem. Mary Brower at Bluestem has interest in BRC, which could support her mission to alleviate food insecurity in Charlevoix County by building a farmstand that offers free food to neighbors to serve as a solution to the rural food desert she lives in.
By working at the intersection of local growers and consumers, BRC will have a positive impact on the physical and economic wellbeing of women.
How will you evaluate or measure your success:
To develop feasible, impactful, site-specific solutions to sustainably connect site clients with local produce by April 1, 2022, we will have:
- Supported at least 2 sites in Emmet Co in implementing a sustainable increase in the amount of local, healthy food options for clients through procurement, promotion, or education
- Provided 2 sites with $2,000 to purchase resources needed to complete their action plans
- Gained valuable feedback and data, with metrics developed specifically for BRC by Public Policy Associates, to evaluate impact and determine improvements for phase 2 of BRC
- Increased market opportunities for local farmers
- Increased community knowledge and awareness of local food, how to get it, and/or how to cook it
- Increased site procurement of local, seasonal food
Grant Project Budget Form
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