Co-op Community | Spring Quarterly 2024
Cooperative Community Fund 2024 Grant Recipients
Over $27,000 was donated this year!
The Cooperative Community Fund is a permanent endowment established and directed by members of North Coast Co-op, which awards grants to support projects and the work of community organizations in Humboldt County. Through collaborative grant making, the Cooperative Community Fund seeks to strengthen the community by emphasizing projects and activities that promote sustainable agriculture, food nutrition and education, and food security.
This year, over $27,000 was given to 13 different, local non-profits throughout Humboldt County to go towards their projects and dreams.
Arcata House Partnership - Cookbook ($1,500)
Arcata House Partnership staff and program participants are compiling recipes to share with newly housed individuals who have been chronically homeless. These recipes will all meet the criteria of costing less than five dollars, and able to be made in one pot or in a microwave.
Yurok Tribal Housing Community Garden in Arcata ($1,525)
We the tribal community members of Yurok Tribal Housing in Arcata, are exercising our food sovereignty rights on these garden spaces given to us. We will grow and learn together our native superfoods, as well as common foods. Our goal is to grow connections with healthy food choices along with our families. Our garden spaces shall remain organic.
California Seaweed Festival ($2,250)
The California Seaweed Festival is a free public festival to celebrate seaweed biodiversity and uses. The festival includes educational and creative activities. Funds will support cooking demonstrations to give attendees an opportunity to taste seaweed in several different dishes prepared onsite by a local chef, using locally grown and sustainably wild harvested seaweed from north coast producers. The festival is October 18-20.
CUMBRE Humboldt - Science Summer Camp Scholarships ($2,860)
This project will allow disadvantaged minority children to participate in a science focused summer camp in their neighborhood in Valley West, Arcata. Even though Arcata is geographically small, the Valley West area is essentially cut off from the rest of the city due to the freeways, making it difficult for children to easily access summer camps or other drop in centers.
CUNA “What’s Cooking” Culinary Arts Food Literacy Program – Awarded $1,800
We will be teaching culinary skills, menu planning, budgeting, food nutrition, growing your own food and lifelong healthy eating habits. The culmination of these workshops will be free monthly community dinners. Our food pantry supplies will be distributed to individuals and families in need, so they may take the newly learned culinary skills, nutrition and healthy eating as well as budgeting, to create meals in their own homes.
Dream Quest Youth Serving Community ($1,600)
This project includes senior meal events, where youth help to plan, cook and serve. The project includes two other youth led activities, ongoing trash pickup, and Random Acts of Kindness. Youth work together to determine what Acts of Kindness are the most feasible and organize the activity. They will go out into our community and perform at least two Random Acts of Kindness. These experiences will empower youth to explore barriers that the Willow Creek region faces and how they can help to make a difference.
Humboldt Domestic Violence Services – Cell Phones for Fleeing Survivors ($2,000)
Funds will allow us to offer free cellphones to survivors in need so that they can communicate and stay connected to trusted loved ones and supporting agencies. Many survivors fleeing end up leaving their phones behind due to cyberstalking or their abusers controlling the access to their original phones. Our goal is to set-up survivors to be able to access and look up necessary resources like employment, housing, food, and social services.
Humboldt Senior Resource Center - Local Harvest Meals ($2,135)
This project brings the bounty of Humboldt County producers to local seniors through two special Local Harvest meals, each serving about 350 people. Featuring almost entirely locally sourced ingredients, these meals celebrate the autumn harvest while educating participants about the nutritional benefits and importance of fresh, local food. The meals will serve homebound seniors who rely on Meals on Wheels Redwood Coast, as well as people who attend our Heritage Café dining rooms and our day programs.
Institute for Sustainable Forestry - Educational Elderberry Groves ($980)
This project will engage and educate about the use of indigenous foods and medicines. Beginning with native elderberries, we will create two public groves and provide an educational experience. There will be signage in both English and Wailaki. The groves will be in public locations: the Redwood Rural Health Center (RRHC) and the Southern Humboldt Community Park (SHCP). This project includes educational walks to the SHCP grove to describe native foods, medicine and cultural management.
The North Coast Rape Crisis Team - Home Stabilization After Sexual Assault Disclosure ($3,000)
Perpetrators can be the main financial provider in the home, and in the aftermath of a disclosure the financial stability of that family can change dramatically. Without the financial resources of the perpetrator, families are left with few resources to cover the cost of basic needs, such as water, gas or other utility bills. These funds will provide fifteen families with up to $200 for basic need utility bills to keep the lights on while transitioning to long-term resources and allow families to begin their healing journey.
Northcoast Environmental Center - Compassionate Cleanups ($3,000)
We acknowledge homelessness as an enviro injustice and the production of trash to be a systemic issue, as homelessness itself also is. This program directly meets the needs of increasingly disregarded community members: providing homeless residents a needed service, engaging and humanizing a vulnerable population, and directly protecting sensitive ecologies by removing waste. Through this work, we are able to better advocate – with the leadership of those experiencing homelessness – for policy solutions to this crisis.
North Coast Growers’ Association - Fisherman’s Dockside Market ($1,500)
In partnership with Ashley’s Seafood and Redwood Region Economic Development Council, we are working to develop a Fisherman’s Dockside Market on Madaket Plaza in Eureka. This market will be operated similarly to a farmers’ market; fisherfolk will be able to set up individual booths on market days to sell their whole fish and fillets directly to customers. Funding requested will be used to complete a feasibility study; this study will include feedback from working groups of fisherfolk about their needs and uses with the space, and a design and costs of constructing a processing station.
Playhouse Arts - Our Space ($3,000)
Our Space: Unleashing creativity to heal and uplift, is a project of Playhouse Arts that aims to address the pressing challenges of unhoused individuals by leveraging the transformative power of art. Our Space offers a mixed group of housed, housing insecure and unhoused folks, free art classes and opportunities to create art. This innovative project seeks to provide a safe and supportive environment for the unhoused to explore their creativity, develop artistic skills, and use art as a tool for healing and empowerment. The program aims to enhance mental well-being and potentially open new pathways for participants.
