Our 2023 grants went to the following Change-makers PROMOTING CLIMATE-FRIENDLY FOODS.

A Table in the Wilderness was established in 2017 to educate individuals and families in the Oklahoma City metro area on the physical, spiritual, and environmental benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. With our Grocery Store Tours, Community Cooking Show, and Diabetes Undone programs we plan on teaching the benefits of health and wellness, animal welfare, and spirituality; and increasing the demand for healthy climate-friendly foods in food desert neighborhoods. In place of our Food Pantry, we have adopted a Food Waste Reduction Program to save food and products from going into landfills. 

Securing funding that does not promote the toxic forms of charity many funding groups promote is a difficult task. That is why we are so thankful for the support from Eat the Change Impact. This funding helps A Table in the Wilderness continue its unique approach to assisting disadvantaged communities by providing solutions for health and environmental issues that plague them.

Adamah is an environmental organization calling for climate action in Jewish communities across the nation. Eat the Change Impact ($8,500) will support Adamah’s Jewish Youth Climate Movement (JYCM) and Adamah on Campus, empowering our youth to lead on climate and social justice issues. The Changemaker grant will be devoted to supporting the expansion of JYCM and Adamah on Campus. JYCM provides infrastructure, leadership development, and ongoing mentorship to tweens, teens, and young people, empowering them to take meaningful climate and social justice leadership roles in their communities. We will engage 25 institutions, and 2,500+ people during holiday events nationwide to educate on food waste reduction, food advocacy and regenerative agriculture, and encourage climate friendly diets. 

AfriThrive Inc is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating economic opportunities for underserved African immigrant communities through building a sustainable and culturally appropriate local food system in the Greater Washington, DC area. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Truphena Choti, the organization runs a two-acre farm and supports community gardens in Montgomery County. Their community gardening program brings together a network of immigrant families to cultivate culturally appropriate varieties of African indigenous vegetables on their farm. Through significant community support, it has continued to expand to meet the growing food needs in the community.

AfriThrive will use the funding from Eat the Change Impact to expand its farming operations in their 2-acre cultural farm in Poolesville, Maryland to grow and distribute more healthy, culturally appropriate produce

The Better Food Foundation incubates novel strategies for diet change. We aim to accelerate the shifts to plant-centered eating that we already see taking place in the world and nudge people and institutions to adopt new norms where animal products are drastically reduced. Our vision is a world where plant-based food is the norm. This grant will support DefaultVeg, which nudges communities and institutions to adopt plant-centered food practices and policies.

Bhakti Center: Located on the Lower East Side of New York City, the organization's activities occur year-round and are rooted in timeless teachings centered on the principles of Bhakti within the Vedic tradition. The word Bhakti means devotion in Sanskrit and speaks to the organization's mission to develop a nourished, inspired, and engaged community. In all the weekly offerings Bhakti Center distributes free plant based meals made of organic produce, and encourages the community members through various programs to transition towards a plant based meal lifestyle. Bhakti Center supports New Yorkers fighting food insecurity, transitioning to a plant based lifestyle & spreading awareness on the importance of a plant based diet.

Chilis on Wheels: a vegan nonprofit that works to make Veganism accessible to communities in need through direct food relief, policy change, and education on Veganism: animal welfare, nutrition and climate justice. CoWs strives for systemic change by working on policy & legislation and working with organizations offering food to transition their offerings to plant-based meals. They also empower communities to build alternate systems of survival.

Grant Purpose: The basic problem we are trying to address is to first help those individuals who don't have access to healthy plant based meals. Secondly to educate in a scientific way regular New yorkers on the benefits of plant based diet. Our proposed solution is to increase our meal distribution program and have weekly meetings in our space to hold discussions and debates on the benefits of plant based diets.

Black Veg Society's mission is to educate predominantly Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, on the benefits of holistic living, the plant-based diet, and veganism while building a community centered around healthy, accessible, and sustainable food and a focus on compassionate lifestyle choices. Thanks to this grant, we could support additional vegan festivals, effectively coordinate Maryland Vegan Restaurant Week, Vegan Soul Fest, and welcome new young mentees to assist in crafting resources and social media content.

Organization Mission: Building Bridges Across the River (Building Bridges) provides residents East of the Anacostia River access to the best-in-class facilities, programs, and partnerships in arts and culture, economic opportunity, education, recreation, health, and well-being. Building Bridges envisions a future in which the residents East of the Anacostia River experience vital, thriving communities characterized by social, cultural, economic, and racial equity.

Grant Purpose: Building Bridges Farms uses our 7 urban farms to supply our CSA farm share program and Farmer's Market to make the connection between a healthy environment and healthy families and children. Our community-centric approach brings fresh climate-friendly foods into neighborhoods where they are in short supply and puts them directly in the hands of those who need them most.

The Charles Koiner Conservancy is a nonprofit urban land trust dedicated to protecting and sustaining urban farms that inspire the next generation of food-system innovators. Established in 2018, the Conservancy emerged out of a need to preserve a historic farm in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland - Koiner Farm. Today, the Conservancy continues to run Koiner Farm, while also working to launch new urban farms in food security focus areas throughout Montgomery County.

By fostering a community-led approach to land stewardship and food production, the Charles Koiner Conservancy provides opportunities for people to engage with their food and land in ways that improve learning outcomes, health indicators and community stability. Koiner Farms offers field trips and internships for students, volunteerships and workshops for neighbors, a weekly on-farm market featuring local bands and artisans, and community-building partnerships with local businesses that support composting, healthy living, and donations to food banks.

According to Kate Medina, Executive Director for the Conservancy, “we are grateful to be an ETC changemaker working with other changemakers around the country to connect people to their land, their food and each other.”

The mission of the Climate Collaborative is to activate rigorous climate action in the natural products industry. The organization was founded in 2017 with the objective of removing barriers to climate action through education, tools and resources, and through a Commitment Program focused on the areas of highest impact for the industry. To date, the Climate Collaborative has catalyzed and tracked the public climate commitments from more than 760 companies, and has worked with stakeholders to support their critical engagement in climate advocacy.

The Eat the Change Impact Grant will support a Community of Practice focused on organic and regenerative transition for companies in the Natural Products Community. 

Common Good City Farm is a place where community members can source fresh food, see sustainable urban agriculture in action, and gain exposure to concepts and skills to lead healthy lives. We actively engage with all members of our diverse community and create opportunities for connections on our farm, while emphasizing intensive vegetable production modeling best practices in sustainable urban agriculture. Our mission is to sustain and support a more equitable community through growing, learning, cooking, and sharing fresh food together. Our purpose is to work with our neighbors in nurturing a sustainable community space grounded in food justice, education, and connection. 

Funds from Eat the Change will support our weekly pay-what-you-can market as well as our educational programming for adults and youth. 

Crop Swap LA's mission is to grow high-quality, nutrient-rich food in underutilized urban spaces while creating green jobs, preserving water, and uniting the community. Funding from Eat the Change supports urban food production and distribution as well as the expansion of educational services.

Crossroads Community Food Network is building a healthier, more equitable food system in the Takoma/Langley Crossroads, a primarily immigrant community outside Washington, DC. At the heart of this network of food growers, makers, and consumers is Crossroads Farmers Market, where an innovative SNAP matching program makes it easier to bring home more healthy food, and at the same time supports local farmers--most of whom are also immigrants. Crossroads also provides community-based healthy eating education, business support for small-scale food entrepreneurs, and an affordable community kitchen geared toward helping them succeed.

Eat the Change Impact’s Changemaker grant is supporting Crossroads’ Healthy Eating Program, which brings culturally responsive, farm-to-fork programming to local schools with high Free and Reduced-price Meals (FARMS) participation, the farmers market, and other community sites. By connecting and empowering those who grow, make, and eat healthy food, Crossroads is helping a historically marginalized community attain food equity and self-sufficiency.

DC Greens is a Black-led, multiracial organization that uses the power of equitable food policy, education, and access to build a more just and resilient food system in our nation's capital. DC Greens’ vision for health equity is a city in which each of us can shape the policies and institutions that impact our wellbeing. Eat the Change supports The Well at Oxon Run, our educational farm and intergenerational wellness space in DC’s Ward 8. The Well is designed to promote healing in healthy green spaces, with programming that addresses the root causes of food insecurity.

Eat REAL empowers school district food service leaders to increase access to high quality real food options. Our work teaches kids to learn to love real food, and that their choices can have a significant impact on healing our planet. Eat REAL Certification is a standards based evaluation and change management program that encourages school districts to increase plant-based options on menus, increase local procurement of seasonal ingredients, implement farm to school programming, practice responsible waste management, and introduce climate-friendly food education in the cafeteria. This grant will support our work within our next cohort of schools undergoing Eat REAL Certification.

The Educated Choices Program provides free science-based educational resources to schools and communities worldwide, discussing the impacts of food choices on human and planetary health.

Since 2016, ECP has reached over 3.0 million students in 34 countries with this vital information in three languages. They are expanding their library of resources to include a series of short videos that take deep dives into the many environmental impacts of our food system.

With proven results of nearly 50% of their participants making healthful and environmentally friendly dietary changes, they are significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by providing the educational platform upon which to build a more sustainable food system! 

Fleet Farming was created by and for the Orlando community in 2014 as a solution to the local food crisis. Now, the urban agriculture nonprofit is taking on more lawns and school community gardens to advance the #growfoodnotlawns movement, and to empower all generations to grow food. Funds from Eat the Change will go towards expanding food sovereignty for Orlando residents living in “food deserts” and shortening food miles for all: through empowering Orlando youth at The Academic Center For Excellence to engage in hands-on urban agriculture education, plant-based diets, and biodiversity, focusing on sustainable practices, food security, and contributing to communal urban agriculture food donation programs.

Food Shift, a project of Earth Island Institute, develops practical solutions to reduce food waste, nourish communities, and provide jobs. Operation Together recovers food that would otherwise go to waste to nourish neighbors in need with the assistance of Food Shift culinary apprentices overcoming employment discrimination. We are harvesting insights from our direct interactions with the community hyperlocally, so we can share out the wisdom globally. The grant will be used to implement our inclusive culinary training curricula and advocate for planet and people-friendly nutritional guidelines for deep impact and influence for food justice and climate action.

The people of New Orleans live an interesting contradiction: the city is internationally known for its culinary creativity and extravagance, yet simultaneously many residents – including children – lack access to fresh, nutritious foods. Grow Dat Youth Farm exists within this paradox. Grow Dat is an education nonprofit, cultivating the leadership potential of New Orleans area young adults through tiered leadership programming in the context of sustainable urban agriculture. Grow Dat’s seven-acre farm in the heart of New Orleans hosts about 60+ young adults hired annually to participate in one of four leadership programs. In addition to taking home fresh produce weekly, youth receive a stipend above minimum wage. Since 2010, 500+ young adults have graduated from our programs and helped to harvest ~318,700 pounds of food for local consumption, 20% of which is donated to local organizations and food-insecure residents.

Growing Gardens is a grassroots food justice initiative that uses the experience of growing food in schools, backyards and correctional facilities to cultivate healthy, equitable communities. Our Home Gardens program partners with families, affordable housing units, and healthcare clinics to build communal and backyard gardens in low-income neighborhoods. Through hands-on gardening mentorship, supplies, and support we promote food system leadership from within BIPOC communities in order to create a resilient, equitable food system for the future. Our Youth Grow program empowers pre-K through high school students in 11 Title 1 schools to explore nature, culture, and food through classes, after school clubs, and a high school internship. Our Lettuce Grow program offers horticulture education in 14 correctional facilities, providing incarcerated adults and youth with agency, dignity, and workforce development in horticultural fields.

Harlem Grown’s mission is to inspire youth to lead healthy and ambitious lives through mentorship and hands-on education in urban farming, sustainability, and nutrition. Since healthy habits start young, we target low-income youth ages 5-18 across their programming. Today, we operate 13 urban agricultural sites, seven intensive school partnerships, weekly Saturday programming from April to October, a free 7-week intensive Summer Camp, farm-based education tours, monthly community events, and a Mobile Teaching Kitchen that travels throughout Harlem.

As a direct response to a call to action from our parents and school partners to address the need for out of school programming across the Harlem community, we are proud to announce the launch of our Independent Afterschool Program in September of this year. Harlem Grown will use funding from Eat the Change Impact Changemaker Grant to support programming costs for our Independent Afterschool Program. We are committed to providing academic enrichment, advancing social-emotional development, and creating an economic advantage for 25 low-income youth and their families.

HIP Agriculture is a non-profit organization that operates as a farm & learning center dedicated to advancing local food access, while practicing regenerative agriculture. HIP Ag offers comprehensive farmer training programs, including young farmer apprenticeships to free community workshops. We also work with the local school systems through our Farm-to-School program to help educate youth on the importance of stewarding the land, proper nutrition and growing food locally.

Nestled in rural North Kohala on Hawai'i Island, our farm cultivates an array of fruits, vegetables, and medicinal plants, embodying regenerative agriculture and permaculture principles.

With the support of this year's funding, HIP Agriculture will expand its impact by enhancing farm field trips and Farm-to-School educational programs. By empowering young advocates, we strive to catalyze transformation within our food systems and promote community well-being.

IMPACT Silver Spring is committed to bringing about a more racially just and economically equitable Montgomery County by working for change at the individual, neighborhood, and systems levels. Their community gardening initiative and cooking classes are neighborhood-level programs developed in response to resident-identified needs and interests. With support from Eat the Change, IMPACT will provide one-on-one technical support to residents engaged in community gardening, and incorporate information about the benefits of eating climate-friendly foods into their cooking classes.

Keep Growing Detroit’s mission is to promote a food sovereign city where the majority of fruitsand vegetables consumed by Detroiters are grown by residents within the city’s limits. Throughour programs, Garden Resource Program, we support a network of over 2,000 gardens, and Grown in Detroit, we provide growers low-barrier opportunities to sell their produce at local markets.

This grant supports hands-on activities at 30 engagement events across Detroit. These eventswill engage at least 1000 individuals. Participants will be introduced to KGD programs andservices and develop familiarity with climate-friendly agricultural and cooking practices.

LAFPC works to ensure food is healthy, affordable, fair and sustainable for all. We believe Good Food for All is possible and all communities deserve access to good food, grown in a way that respects people and the planet. We work to create a local food system free from hunger, rooted in equity and access, supportive of farmers and food workers, and guided by principles of environmental stewardship and regeneration. Funding from Eat the Change will support Good Food Day LA, a public resource fair centered around the intersection of food and climate change. Through this event, we hope to increase awareness among the public and elected officials regarding climate-resilient food systems.

La Plazita Institute (LPI) is a grassroots organization that uses a comprehensive, holistic and cultural approach designed around the philosophy of "La Cultura Cura" to engage with youth, elders and communities to draw from their own roots and histories that will express core traditional values of respect, honor, love and family. LPI's strength is using traditional culture and resources to build capacity to overcome disparities within our community. We use our farm program to teach the connection between land and water and to help decolonize our communities’ diets. The community gets the opportunity to plant seeds, water, harvest and wash organically grown vegetables.

Led by Chicane and mixed-race women, femmes, and non-binary folks, La Semilla Food Center seeks to transform the food system away from an oppressive, extractive, and environmentally detrimental system into one co-created by community, and grounded in human rights, biodiversity, and healing of soil and people. Established in 2010, La Semilla’s mission is to foster a healthy, self-reliant, fair, and sustainable food system in the Paso del Norte region, which encompasses Southern New Mexico, West Texas, and is adjacent with Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. In this project La Semilla will begin to shift school gardens away from municipal irrigation and water intensive vegetable crops by installing rainwater harvesting systems that feed edible Chihuahuan Desert plants while growing community practices around the growth and culinary and medicinal use of these plants.

Founded in 2006, Mālama Kaua’i is a community-based, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that focuses on increasing local food production and access for Kaua‘i. They do this through a lens of resilience and sustainability, which leverages workforce and economic development efforts, partnerships and innovative programs to grow community capacity.

This grant supports their KauaiLocalFood.com program, which provides islandwide delivery and pickup of local food, with an emphasis on food access for the islandʻs most vulnerable through a SNAP/DA BUX program. They also have a commercial food distribution program which supplies products to businesses across the island, including schools, food banks and pantries. Over 100 local farmers and food producers benefit from increased sales and islandwide distribution through the program, helping them to scale their businesses.

Plant Futures is dedicated to equipping students to become the next generation of ethical leaders, systems thinkers, and effective advocates for a plant-centric future for our planet, people, and animals. 

Our transformative impact is facilitated through a multifaceted approach, which includes our pioneering curricula, Challenge Lab program, events, and global Chapter Network, comprising students united by their dedication to a plant-based future.

Our Student Chapter network is rapidly expanding, with 30+ schools across the U.S. and five countries.

Thanks to the ETC grant, we will be expanding opportunities for students in the D.C. area, with the potential to reach thousands of students in the first year of expansion.

One of the most exciting aspects about climate-friendly eating is that it is good for both the health of the planet and the people that inhabit it. The Plantrician Project understands this connection well in its work to educate, equip, and empower healthcare practitioners with knowledge about the benefits of whole-food, plant-based nutrition for the regeneration of human health, healthcare, and the food ecosystem.

Founded in 2013, this national organization envisions a world where all physicians, healthcare providers, and health influencers embrace the dietary paradigm shift to a plant-based diet in order to help prevent, suspend, and even reverse much of the diet-related chronic disease plaguing the nation and world.

Sowing Seeds of Change enriches the lives of adults 18+ years old with developmental disabilities and foster youth by providing a one-of-a-kind inclusive environment with job training and recreational activities. SSC gives participants hands-on experiences while educating them on how health and wellness is achieved through the accessibility of fresh, nutritious food. Our urban farm is creating a healthier, more equitable food system in Long Beach. Grants funds will allow us to continue to provide access to healthy organic food grown on our farm. In addition to providing access to produce we will provide recipients with nutritional education and cooking demos. Food grown on our farm is grown by SSC vocational program participants who are individuals with disabilities and foster youth aged 18-24.

SÜPRSEED is committed to providing vegan events, education, and experiences that help people make lasting healthy lifestyle changes. With the help of this Eat The Change Grant, they are filling their brick- and- mortar location with equipment used to provide low cost healthy vegan meals, juices, and wellness classes to the community.

Through research, strategy, networking, and policy advocacy, the Upcycled Food Association (UFA) is building a food system in which all food is elevated to its highest and best use. Upcycled Food Foundation, the nonprofit partner of UFA, is leveraging market forces to prevent food waste by coordinating hundreds of companies around the world and empowering millions of consumers to prevent climate change with the products they buy. Upcycled products prevent food waste by creating new, high quality products out of surplus food. It’s an innovative approach to food waste because it is the first consumer product-based solution, making it highly scalable and economically sustainable.

Urban Roots MN cultivates and empowers youth through nature, healthy food, and community. Located on the East Side of Saint Paul in Minnesota, the organization provides paid internships for under-resourced youth, ages 14-24, where they “learn and earn” through three food and environmental programs—Market Garden, Cook Fresh, and Conservation. Through their progressive program leadership model, youth leaders develop the confidence and skills needed to pursue educational and employment goals.  

Funding from Eat the Change will support the Market Garden and Cook Fresh programs, workshops on nutrition literacy & education, and their Mobile Market that brings produce to local residents and accepts SNAP/EBT.

We are a global community of passionate animal advocates offering our skills in building technology for the animal protection movement through design, development, and data. As capacity builders, we deliver innovative and quality services at no cost to advocates and organizations.

Our team is composed of highly-skilled and professional software engineers, designers, data scientists, and content creators. By leveraging our diverse background and skill sets, we design and build data-driven projects that aim to be effective and experimental.

Our capacity-building services are how we contribute to the movement. Leveraging our vast network of volunteers, we collaborate with individuals and organizations to offer web development, branding, and advisory services.

The 10 Million Black Vegan Women Movement (10MBVW) is a revolutionary public health intervention that uses plant-based nutrition and community building to change the health paradigm of Black women now and for generations to come. The signature 21-Day Vegan Fresh Start is a free online program that gives Black women the tools we need to take back control of our health.

Wholesome Wave is a national non-profit established on the belief that affordable access to fruits and vegetables is a fundamental human right. Wholesome Wave’s mission is to decrease disparities in diet-related illness and to make fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable particularly for those suffering from the impacts of racial, ethnic, and income-based inequities.