Weaver Street Market awards grants each year to local nonprofits for community projects that focus on “Access to Healthy Food.”
The grants come from our Cooperative Community Fund (CCF), a sustainable endowment fund for community donations. WSM grows the endowment fund through contributions from owners and shoppers, including the purchase of Hope for the Holiday products, proceeds from wine shows and co-op events, and donated owner dividends and shares. The endowment’s current value is $332,247.
Grants are paid from the interest that the endowment fund generates. Each year, a committee of consumer owners and worker owners evaluates grant applications and selects recipients. Since its first grant award in 2006, the CCF has awarded grants to 42 local nonprofit organizations for a total of more than $70,500.
$5,000: Tierra Fértil Co-op, a worker-owned Hispanic farmer cooperative in Hendersonville, for a refrigeration system for the farm to increase the shelf life of their products and support the overall capacity of the farm as they expand their CSA this year. Read about Tierra Fértil here.
$3,000: Orange County 4-H Program to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Tarleton and Bonnie Davis Memorial 4-H Garden, a .75 acre garden located on the Davis family lands in Hillsborough. The funds will be used to purchase and install a storage building and high tunnel cover for the community garden.
$3,000: Orange County Partnership for Young Children to provide garden stipends and kitchen kits for 15 childcare programs participating in Grow Fresh: Eat What’s in Season—a Farm to Early Care and Education Project.
$2,000: Meals on Wheels Orange County, NC to help purchase commercial refrigeration that allows the organization to safely store, preserve, and move food for their current service levels and to grow into new service models, including medically tailored meals.
$2,000: PORCH Raleigh to purchase refrigeration and shelving for its new Food for Families program. The fresh food initiative provides boxes of fresh perishable produce along with nonperishable food donated through the monthly PORCH neighborhood food drives.
Here’s a list of past Cooperative Community Fund Grant recipients.