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06411 August 16, 2006
Nearly $180,000 goes to food security projects
PHP grants help build more just and healthy food system
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE * The Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) has awarded grants totaling $177,975 to 32 organizations around the country working to alleviate hunger by creating a more just and healthier food system.
Funding for the grants comes from the One Great Hour of Sharing offering.
The grants will help support projects that focus on such issues as food accessibility for low-income families, justice for farm workers, strengthening local food economies, sustainable development, and community organizing, education and advocacy around food issues.
"Rural poverty in the United States is on the rise, so Presbyterian efforts to support family farmers and farm workers are critically important," said Andrew Kang Bartlett, the PHP's Associate for National Hunger Concerns. "Buying local food is a big part of that."
In Seattle, a $9,000 PHP grant has assisted the P-Patch Trust to purchase land they have been gardening for more than a decade to grow and distribute food in low-income communities.
The White Earth Land Recovery Project was awarded a $7,500 grant for their Mino-Miijim (Good Food) Program, which was created to address the diabetes epidemic on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota and to restore health and balance to the community by providing traditional foods and nutritional education.
Another grant of $7,500 was provided to the Farmworker Association of Florida to establish an entrepreneurship program for low-income people to learn about operating a farm: from soil preparation and seed planting to harvesting, processing, packaging, and marketing crops. After completing the program aspiring farmers should have the knowledge and skills to start their own farms or cooperatives.
"The grant has definitely made a difference because this is a program that was in [Marianna, FL] where we don't have an office," said Holly Baker, program assistant for the Farmworker Association of Florida. "It was a new area for us to go into and it helped us to have staff members travel there to build relationships with the community and to initiate this program."
PHP, a ministry of the General Assembly Council (GAC), has provided more than $100 million over the last 37 years in the fight against hunger and its root causes in the United States and around the world. Through PHP, Presbyterians support efforts in the five PHP program areas: direct hunger relief, development assistance, public policy advocacy, lifestyle integrity, and hunger education.
The PHP Advisory Committee approved the grant recipients last year.
The programs receiving grants:
Agricultural Missions, Inc., New York, NY (National Capital Presbytery): $3,000 for the Abundant Life, Peace and Justice Tour to equip people of faith, students and others with understanding about and tools to address the root causes of hunger.
Borderlinks, Tucson, AZ (Synod of the Southwest, de Cristo Presbytery): $8,350 to serve meals to school children and their families along the United States-Mexican border.
CATA * Farm Worker Support Committee, Glassboro, NJ (Synod of the Northeast): $4,500 to improve farm workers' living and working conditions by advocating for just policies based on existing local, state, federal and international law.
Center of Concern, Washington, DC (National Capital Presbytery): $7,500 to coordinate research documenting consolidation of U.S. agri-food companies and to distribute the report to help inform agricultural policy debates, including the 2007 Farm Bill.
Centro San Bonifacio, Chicago, IL (Synod of Lincoln Trails, Chicago Presbytery): $2,500 to educate low-income immigrants about the relationship between nutrition, health and the environment.
Community Farm Alliance, Frankfort, KY (Synod of Living Waters, Mid-Kentucky Presbytery): $3,400 to develop a Local Food Economy Plan for Kentucky's largest metropolitan area, Louisville.
Community Food Security Center of the Community Food Bank, Tucson, AZ (Synod of the Southwest, de Cristo Presbytery): $2,500 to educate the community about issues of hunger, food security and food democracy, and to develop youth leaders.
Community Food Security Coalition, Venice, CA (National Capital Presbytery): $4,500 to support educational and policy advocacy programs to help grassroots groups develop innovative, community-based solutions to food and hunger problems.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Learning Center, Chicago, IL (Synod of Lincoln Trails, Chicago Presbytery): $7,500 to create affordable access for poor families to fresh produce and to develop youth leadership and skills.
Dakota Resource Council, Dickinson, ND (Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Northern Plains Presbytery): $4,150 to advocate for greater justice in the marketplace and in U.S. trade policy for the benefit of farm workers.
Dakota Rural Action, Brookings, SD (Synod of Lakes and Prairies, South Dakota Presbytery): $2,500 to protect or improve on farm policies that impact family farms, ranches, rural communities and the environment.
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Portland, OR (Synod of the Pacific): $5,900 to increase access to nutritious, culturally appropriate food and to improve small farm viability.
Farmworker Association of Florida, Apopka, FL (Synod of South Atlantic, Central Florida Presbytery): $7,500 to create an equitable partnership that improves social and economic conditions for farm workers.
First Presbyterian Church of Newton, Elmhurst, NY (Synod of the Northeast, New York City Presbytery): $1,500 to maintain an organic community garden that provides fresh, healthy produce to local food banks.
Georgia Avenue Community Ministry, Inc., Atlanta, GA (Synod of South Atlantic, Greater Atlanta Presbytery): $2,500 to improve the economical situation of needy families through cooperative ownership of the 15-year-old Georgia Avenue Food Cooperative, which has provided well over 100 tons of food to members and for emergency relief.
Global Exchange, San Francisco, CA (National Capital Presbytery): $7,500 to advocate for sweat-free (non-sweatshop) government procurement legislation, including preferential local and organic food purchasing.
Hartford Food System, Hartford, CT (Synod of the Northeast, Southern New England Presbytery): $1,650 to educate low-income people about food production, harvesting and policy decisions.
Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida, Immokalee, FL (National Capital Presbytery): $6,700 to pressure the fast-food industry to adopt the principles in the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)-Yum Brands Inc. The agreement ended a three-year national boycott of fast-food giant Taco Bell by paying farm workers a penny more per pound of tomatoes they pick.
Ionia, Inc., Kasilof, AK (Synod of Alaska-Northwest, Yukon Presbytery): $7,500 to create an agrarian community way of life among mentally disabled people, which addresses the root causes of hunger and poverty.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, Des Moines, IA (Synod of Lakes and Prairies, Des Moines Presbytery): $3,750 to support economic viability of independent family farmers and to promote fair wages for their products.
Isles, Trenton, NJ (Synod of the Northeast, New Brunswick Presbytery): $6,000 to address urban hunger through a comprehensive Community Garden Program for low-income people.
Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Columbia, MO (Synod of Mid-America): $7,500 to coordinate cooperative purchasing, transport and distribution of fresh produce to low-income families.
Montana Association of Churches, Billings, MT (Synod of the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone Presbytery): $3,375 to work with 500 congregations to provide education and advocacy for those experiencing hunger and poverty, including study of the WIC farmers market nutrition program.
National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, Pine Bush, NY (National Capital Presbytery): $7,500 to advocate for the enforcement of policies promoting conservation, sustainability and fairness in the last Farm Bill.
National Family Farm Coalition, Washington, DC (National Capital Presbytery): $6,000 to advocate for pro-family farmer agricultural policy and equal access by minority and low-income farmers to US Dept. of Agriculture programs.
National Farm Worker Ministry, St. Louis, MO (National Capital Presbytery): $10,800 to support a campaign to unionize the farm workers from 1,050 camps in North Carolina as a result of a break-through with the North Carolina Growers Association, which signed a landmark neutrality contract.
P-Patch Trust, Seattle, WA (Synod of Alaska/Northwest; Seattle Presbytery): $9,000 to purchase the land that the P-Patch garden has been using for over a decade to grow and distribute food in low-income communities.
Restaurant Workers Association of Koreatown, Los Angeles, CA (Synod of Southern California and Hawaii, Santa Barbara Presbytery): $6,000 to educate workers on their rights through labor law seminars and to provide assistance through a legal clinic.
Rural Coalition, Washington, DC (National Capital Presbytery): $6,750 to assure equity in USDA programs; monitoring implementation of the provisions of the Farm Bill that impact minority farm workers and support efforts to reduce the risks small farmers face by designing new tools to help them acquire or hold onto their land, manage their farm operations, reduce risks and market their goods.
Rural Development Leadership Network, New York, NY (National Capital Presbytery): $6,000 to develop a resource center for small farmers and to transform a farm worker labor camp into dignified housing.
Sweat-Free Communities, Bangor, ME (National Capital Presbytery): $6,650 to develop and assist a national network of local campaigns pushing through non-sweatshop purchasing policies in cities, counties, school districts and states.
White Earth Land Recovery Project, Ponsford, MN (Synod of Lakes and Prairies; Northern Plains Presbytery): $7,500 to expand traditional indigenous agriculture to reduce health problems caused by poor nutrition.
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