Grants Awarded

United Way of Northeast Michigan – $30,000

Continuing to Foster a Circular Economy Rooted in Regional Food Systems

This grant will enable a coalition of organizations to continue their efforts to strengthen local markets and community-based food systems in Northeast Michigan. Specific efforts will include (1) expanding direct-market opportunities for small- and medium-scale farms; (2) foster connections across the region that support capacity building, cooperation, and market development; (3) complete and apply a mapping database of food systems in the region; and (4) secure long-term resources to support the scaling and continuity of the work.

Partridge Creek Compost – $21,840

Engaging Upper Peninsula Communities in Composting and Food-System Education

Partridge Creek Compost (PCC), along with its partner organization, Partridge Creek Farm, are dedicated to building a resilient local food system in Ishpeming, MI and across the Upper Peninsula. PCC will use this grant to increase curbside collection of compostable materials by 25 households per month in 2024 and use it to produce high quality compost that can be applied to community gardens and other local growing operations.

Fair Food Network – $25,000

Michigan Good Food Fund Seed Awards

Fair Food Network will use this grant to provide direct seed grants to Michigan-based food and farm enterprises that have a demonstrated commitment to promoting local agriculture so they can grow their businesses and/or prepare for additional financing. Successful applicants will be identified by a Stakeholder Board of entrepreneurs, lenders, and technical assistance providers who have collectively identified a set of priorities to guide the investment decisions. Americana's grant will be used to fund businesses in under-resourced northern and rural geographies in Michigan.

Clinton River Watershed Council – $25,000

Assessing High Priority Water Quality Improvement Projects in the Clinton River Watershed

The Clinton River Watershed Council will use this grant to collaborate with other organizations in the watershed to (1) identify high-priority, shovel-ready or near shovel-ready projects eligible for federal funding, and (2) modernize existing watershed management plans so they incorporate concerns created by climate change and other current threats. CRWC's objective is to create tangible tools that its partners can use to implement competitive projects in the watershed that will have cascading benefits to Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River, and the entire Great Lakes system.

Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation – $25,000

Legacies of 1619: Law and Race at Jamestown

The Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation will use this grant to expand its public programming to create a self-guided tour focused on the First Africans who arrived in Virginia in 1619. The tour will cover two central themes: (1) the origins of the rule of law in America and its evolution throughout the 17th and 18th centuries; and (2) the intersection of race and law through the gradual, systemic development of codified slavery in America.

Michigan History Foundation – $25,000

Gchi Mshijkenh Deh Minising/Heart of the Great Turtle Island

This grant will support a collaborative effort involving the State of Michigan, four tribes, and local partners in developing and interpreting the west side of Straits State Park in St. Ignace, MI. The project will add Anishinaabe context to the story of Michigan told at the site through a Learning Commons, outdoor trails, and structures at a Powwow Circle. This will make it a key interpretive space for explaining the seasonality of Anishinaabe life in both the pre- and post-contact periods, as well as their culture's continuing relationship with the natural world. Americana's grant will be used to construct a Drum Circle structure at the center of the Powwow Circle.

Planet Detroit – $20,000

Community Journalism Training for Detroit Residents

This grant will help Planet Detroit launch a community journalism training program. In this program, Planet Detroit will train community reporters to report on sustainability issues in their neighborhoods and communities, such as local food production and security, vacant lot and alley activation, housing rehabilitation and development, and habitat restoration. The stories will highlight human and nature-based solutions while shedding light on the challenges that local leaders and entrepreneurs face in holding leaders accountable and while elevating grassroots community groups as they overcome these challenges. Planet Detroit will partner with El Central Media to translate and republish the stories in Spanish.

Headwaters Land Conservancy – $16,000

Landowner Stewardship Resources Assistance

Headwaters will use this grant to launch an educational stewardship-based program to help private landowners in northeastern Michigan improve land management practices. Private land conservation and management will help to create corridors of sustainable habitat to support the growth and preservation of Michigan flora and fauna. Headwaters will offer the program in partnership with local conservation districts, MSU Extension, and local invasive species management groups.

Historic Locust Grove – $25,000

Reducing Barriers to Historic Resources

Historic Locust Grove, an 18th-century farm site and National Historic Landmark near Louisville, Kentucky, will use this grant to install outdoor interpretive signage, accessible to visitors throughout the 55-acre site, to illuminate the stories of the historic people who lived and worked on the property. The signage will present the site's full history, particularly the history of the large and varied enslaved community, so that all visitors -- not just those participating in ticketed tours - know that the full history of the site is honored in the site's interpretation.

Historic Deerfield – $25,000

Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and Absence in the early American North

Unnamed Figures is an exhibition and publication developed by the American Folk Art Museum in New York that explores the often-unacknowledged presence of Black makers and subjects in the visual and material culture of the 18th and early 19th centuries in the North American North. Historic Deerfield, an outdoor history museum in Deerfield, MA, will use this grant to develop programs to deepen public discussion of these themes and to bring the exhibition to Historic Deerfield in Spring 2024 following its origination (and only other showing) at AFAM.

Make Food Not Waste

Make Food Not Waste on College Campuses

Make Food Not Waste will use this grant to create and deliver a behavior change program directed at college students. The purpose of the program is to reduce consumer food waste, which remains the greatest source of food waste in the food system. The program will focus on college campuses because research shows that college students are significant generators of food waste, especially of edible food. Make Food Not Waste will develop and deliver the program in partnership with five local colleges and universities (Oakland University, Lawrence Technological University, College for Creative Studies, Wayne State University, and University of Detroit-Mercy).

Allen Neighborhood Center – $5,000

Hunter Park GardenHouse School Field Trip Pilot Program

This match grant will leverage funds raised from other sources to expand a field trip program that enables schools and youth groups in the Greater Lansing area to deepen their connection to local food systems and learn about nutrition, botany, and other farm and garden educational topics.

Bethany Housing Ministries dba Community Encompass – $5,000

McLaughlin Grows Educational Garden

This match grant will leverage funds raised from other sources to construct a growing space next to an existing community farm in Muskegon. The new space will include no-till farm beds that students from area schools can use to grow and harvest produce that they can take home to their families. Students will engage in hands-on outdoor classes where they will learn to perform soil testing, diagnose plant diseases, identify pests, and learn the best way to grow fresh food.

Michigan Sustainable Business Forum – $25,000

Benton Harbor Justice 40 Initiative: Building Sustainability Capacity

MSBF will use this grant to recruit and retain a sustainability project manager to support the City of Benton Harbor and to work alongside local community-based organizations, regional institutional partners, and state/national benefactors to develop and execute climate justice and sustainability programs and initiatives to capture opportunities created by state and federal Justice 40 grants. The grant will provide the required match for a $74,000 grant awarded by The Funders Network under the Partners for Places Program.

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If you have reviewed our mission, program areas, priorities, and guidelines and still have questions, feel free to contact us or schedule a 30-minute intro meeting. We will be happy to address any inquiries you may have.

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