2022 SEED Recipients

The Seward Co-op SEED program is a way in which we reach our Ends. The SEED program is a simple yet powerful community giving opportunity that allows customers to “round-up” their grocery bill for recipient organizations that share our commitment to a healthy community. All funds donated at the register are given directly to the recipient organization at the end of each month. Pre-pandemic it was not uncommon for monthly SEED round-ups to total $20,000 or more. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have noticed a decline in monthly SEED totals. Please consider rounding up your purchase or tacking on any extra dollar amount to support the work of our SEED recipients.

Community Choice SEED Results

A Seward Co-op staff-led committee chose eight of the twelve SEED recipients from a pool of applicants. During the 2021 Annual Owner Meeting we announced the 2022 SEED recipients selected by the staff-led committed–listed below–, our People Powered Perks recipient and the result of the Community Choice vote. This year’s People Powered Perks grants recipient is Full Cycle Bike Shop.

Seward Co-op owners and customers are invited annually to select four of twelve 2022 SEED recipients in Community Choice voting. All SEED Community Choice finalists receive a $1,000 grant through the Seward Community Fund. The four organizations selected as the 2022 SEED Community Choice recipients are Dream of Wild Health, Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA), and Tamales y Bicicletas. Thank you to all those who voted!

Learn more about all of the 2022 SEED recipients below.

Isuroon

Isuroon is a community-led organization started by a Somali woman dedicated to building Somali women and girls’ social connectedness and self-sufficiency so that they can lead healthier, more productive lives in Minnesota and globally. The mission is to advance Somali families and women toward a better life, including health, education, and overall self-sufficiency. Isuroon’s vision is for Somali families to fully integrate into the new society without losing their cultural identity.

Learn More

2022 SEED Recipients:

The 2022 SEED recipients are listed below by the month they will be featured. The Community Choice recipients are listed in purple.

January

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop helps incarcerated men and women tell their own stories in their own voices, challenging stereotypes about the incarcerated community and changing public attitudes about the criminal justice system. Funds will be used to teach creative writing classes in Minnesota prisons and amplify the voices of incarcerated Minnesotans.

February

Plant Grow Share

PLANT-GROW-SHARE (PGS) is a grassroots food justice program in the Central neighborhood that focuses on investing in neighbors through gardening, education, sharing food, and anti-racism work while community building. The SEED grant will provide PGS the stability to continue to serve 20 new BIPOC families every year and facilitate a community-led workshop series to help define what food justice looks like in Minneapolis.

March

Sabathani Community Center

Sabathani Community Center provides one of the largest food shelves in the South Minneapolis area. Families can also get free clothing, back-to-school supplies, and holiday support. 25,000 people a year gain food security and self-sufficiency through Sabathai’s donation programming.

April

Tamales y Bicicletas

Tamales y Bicicletas works to center Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and People of Color young adults and their family’s knowledge and wisdom of decolonizing and localizing our food system. We do this through community empowerment/resistance, sustainable transportation, and urban farming skills development in South Minneapolis, building a Jardín Urbana movement from the windowsill herb garden to the neighborhood urban farm.

May

Hmong American Farmers Association

The Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA) advances the economic prosperity of Hmong farming families in Minnesota by addressing racial and economic disparities in our local food systems. We support Hmong farmers in growing more profitable businesses while also building community wealth, encouraging sustainable agriculture, supporting equitable food access, and making fresh, locally grown produce available to residents in the Twin Cities area.

June

RECLAIM

RECLAIM provides mental health services for queer and trans youth and helps expand access to gender-informed care for LGBTQ+ people.

July

Somali American Farmers Association

The Somali American Farmers Association (SAFA) was founded to support Somali and immigrant farmers who focus on culturally specific, organic produce and indigenous African farming practices.

August

Southside Harm Reduction Services

Southside Harm Reduction Services is a grassroots mobile syringe program that works to support people who use drugs in Minneapolis through syringe service program that recognizes people’s human rights to health, safety, and autonomy. These funds will be used to purchases syringes and other harm reduction supplies that are part of community based pathways to safety.

September

Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia

Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia (IX) is raising funds for tenants to purchase five buildings in the Corcoran Neighborhood, known as Sky without Limits (SWL) or Cielo sin Limites Housing Cooperative, that will establish permanently affordable, democratically controlled housing for 69 families. As an organization, IX works to establish housing cooperatives as alternatives to the commonplace landlord-tenant relationship, which results in the extraction of wealth from low-income and BIPOC families–SWL is the first cooperative they have been able to establish!

October

Dream of Wild Health

Dream of Wild Health is a Native-led youth leadership organization with a 30-acre farm. Your donation supports Native youth from Minneapolis reconnecting with their cultural traditions while learning important skills and advocating for food sovereignty.

November

Little Earth Residents Association

Funding from the Seward Community Co-op will support Little Earth’s Urban Farm Program. The farm provides culturally relevant food to 1,000 Native residents located in the East Phillips neighborhood.

December

Isuroon

Isuroon is a grassroots organization working for the health and connectedness of Somali women and girls so they and their families can thrive in Minnesota and globally. SEED funding will be used in support of a culturally-specific food shelf that provides support for social connectedness, dignified service and healthy foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables, to any person in need.