Co-op News | Summer Quarterly 2025
Cooperative Community Fund 2025 Grant Recipients
This year the Co-op accepted
a recording breaking 52
applications for our Cooperative
Community Fund (CCF) grant
program. The CCF Grant
Committee, composed of four
volunteer Co-op members,
had their work set out for
them to review, score, and
ultimately decide how to give out
$20,860. The committee was able
to agree on funding 12 projects.
The Co-op is working to grow the CCF fund so that we
can give even more to local organizations in the future.
A gift to CCF is a gift to the community forever, allowing
the Co-op to give grants annually based on the dividends
earned on the fund. This October, we are raising money for
CCF through the Seeds for Change program and hope you
will round up at the register.
CUMBRE Humboldt - Scholarships for Science
Summer Camp ($2,940)
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.
Willow Creek Youth Partnership - Youth Center
Foodscape ($2,000)
This project engages youth in designing and initial
implementation of a foodscape at the new Dream Quest
Community Youth Center in Willow Creek. Our goal
is to design a versatile outdoor space where youth can
experience growing food, while still allowing space for play,
and outdoor projects. The planning stage will include a
period to settle into the new site, while brainstorming and
having planning sessions with the youth. Our priority is to
maximize the limited small space in a way that will engage
youth in healthy choices for years to come.
Aquilli Metzli Masa Coop - Post-Harvest Processing
Equipment ($2,970)
We are a community-based cooperative that aims to
provide seed to table Masa for the greater Humboldt area.
We are a group of latinx/indigenous farmers, business
owners, students, and community members building space
to practice our land-based culture. We are planting over 10
acres of Milpa. Milpa is the traditional diversified plot of
the indigenous peoples of the Americas. At the heart of the
Milpa is corn, beans, and squash. From the produce we are
growing we will process corn into Masa, vegetables into
canned salsas, and provide dry peppers, beans, and herbs.
211 Humboldt - Outreach ($1,500)
We connect people to CalFresh, WIC and local hot
meals and food pantries throughout Humboldt County.
We assist with helping low-income families to apply for
CalFresh and WIC. If they call afterhours weekdays or on
the weekends we have an emergency food pantry, where
we can get them food until they can get either CalFresh
or to a local food pantry. We assist everyone in Humboldt
County no matter what your race, religion, ethnicity or
sexual preference. We have been answering calls in our
community from people in Crisis for over 62 years.
Centro del Pueblo Movimiento Indigena Migrante –
El Granja Santuario/The Sanctuary Farm ($1,500)
This project aims to cultivate culturally representative
foods from Mexico and Latin America, significantly
benefiting local Indigenous immigrants from the South,
and Latinx communities. The program demonstrates our
capacity for impactful, culturally grounded community
agriculture. This farm will not only enhance nutritional
access but also provide culturally relevant education
through intergenerational farming practices, agricultural
growing techniques, herbal medicine workshops, and
deepening community connections to ancestral food
knowledge. This effort also promotes cultural resistance
and education on starting businesses and cooperatives for
the participants.
Equity Arcata - Home Away From Home ($1,500)
Home Away From Home is a partnership between the
City of Arcata, Cal Poly Humboldt, local businesses and
community members working to make Arcata a more
inclusive and welcoming environment for people of color.
Our purpose is to create a welcoming, safe and racially
equitable community. Home Away From Home volunteers
host potluck meals and household supply distributions,
where students are invited to enjoy a (mostly) home
cooked meal and are provided with a bag filled with
household and personal care supplies and non-perishable
food items.
Playhouse Arts – Our Space Arts ($1,000)
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.
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Creative Sanctuary- Donation Dash ($1,000)
Each spring as CalPoly students vacate the dorms,
thousands of pounds of food, clothing, and household
supplies are discarded. Creative Sanctuary co-created
and manages a system with CalPoly’s Sustainability
Department in which students’ unwanted items are sorted
before entering dumpsters as part of the campus-wide
Donation Dash event. Sorted items are then redirected
towards outlets to be redistributed. Last year the Sanctuary
redirected over 10,000lbs from the trash to recycling and
compost.
Humboldt Family Service Center (HFSC) - Furniture
and Therapy Supplies for One Room ($2,000)
HFSC serves ~350 people per year, and each person has
an average of 46 appointments. This results in ~16,000
counseling sessions. This means that at least 1,600 therapy
sessions will take place in this therapy room alone this
year. This funding is an investment in our community’s
mental health and well-being and will ensure that HFSC, a
cornerstone of mental health support in Humboldt County,
remains a vital resource for years to come.
Heart of the Redwoods Community Hospice (HRCH)
- Volunteer Training and Caregiver Skills Workshop
($1,700)
HRCH plays an essential role in providing support that
allows many of our community members to remain at
home at the end of their life. This workshop will provide
both potential HRCH volunteers and current caregivers
with the information and hands on experience they need
to become an effective part of a care team supporting
someone throughout the dying process. Participants will
learn how our hospice operates and the integral role our
volunteers play in supporting our clients’ “circle of care”.
Northcoast Environmental Center - Compassionate
Cleanups ($1,125)
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 with 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.
Warrior Institute - Summer Youth Fitness Program
($1,625)
This 8-week program at the Warrior Institute Gym
(Hoopa, CA) promotes physical activity, cultural connection
and healthy eating. This program helps to address health
issues and disparities that lie in our community. The
Warrior Institute gym is a non-profit organization with
a gym facility available to youth at no charge. Youth who
are interested can spend their summer participating in
workouts and training at the gym facility as a healthy outlet
and positive space to be themselves and strengthen their
bodies.
