Community Choice Voting 2024

Seward Co-op owners and customers are invited to select four of twelve 2024 SEED recipients. Selection of SEED recipients is led entirely by a committee of co-op staff – front end cashiers and staff from our Equity and Community Engagement department. This grant committee takes great care to evaluate all applications and selects eight of the twelve recipients for the upcoming year. Those eight become our Staff Pick SEED recipients.
The committee also nominates eight organizations to be considered by community members, all of which will receive a $1,000 grant through the Seward Community Fund, whether or not they are ultimately selected as a SEED recipient. The top four winners of those organizations become Community Choice SEED recipients.

Learn about the Community Choice finalists below, and cast your vote for your top four organizations. Then, join us at our Annual Owner Meeting on Tuesday, Oct 24 as we announce the 2024 grant recipients, including the results of the SEED Community Choice vote and Board of Directors Election.

Community Choice SEED Candidate Organizations

Below are short descriptions of the eight SEED organizations nominated by staff for consideration by community members, listed in alphabetical order. You can learn more about each by clicking on the name of the organization. A new window will open to the organization’s website.

East Phillips Neighborhood Institute
The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) is implementing a community-led vision to transform the Roof Depot site into a cooperatively owned indoor hydroponic-aquaponic farm, a low-income housing complex at 30% AMI, one of the largest solar arrays in any Midwestern city, a community gathering and wellness space, a café, world market, and bike shop right on the greenway, and much, much more!

Midtown Greenway Coalition
The Midtown Greenway Coalition works to protect and enhance the Midtown Greenway bike trail, and are working to extend the trail over the Mississippi river and through Saint Paul.

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.

Red Eye Collaboration
Red Eye Theater is an artist-run collective that primarily supports local BIPOC and queer artists, relocated to Seward during the pandemic (in the Focus Arts building at Snelling & 22nd), and is celebrating its 40th Anniversary. Funds will support the installation of a sprung floor in their new space, which will make it fully accessible and flexible, very literally supporting this community for years to come.

Roosevelt Culinary Arts
Roosevelt Culinary Arts’ mission is to empower students through holistic food education that nourishes the students, their communities, and mother Earth. All funds will go directly to students at Roosevelt High School through ingredients and supplies, as well as to help fund service-learning community projects.

Sabathani Community Center
Sabathani Community Center provides one of the largest food shelves in the South Minneapolis area. In addition to culturally-specific food and resources, families can also get free clothing, back-to-school supplies, and holiday support. Over 39,000 people a year gain food security and self-sufficiency through Sabathani’s programming.

Seward Café
In addition to being the oldest collectively-run café in the US, Seward Café also operates as a community garden, a green space, a free store that provides clothing and dry goods, an events venue, and a gathering space where all are welcome. Funding received will be used to support the newest iteration of this historic hub in its mission to promote the health and welfare of the Seward neighborhood via food, space, and community that is accessible, affordable, diverse, and welcoming.

Tamales y Bicicletas
Tamales y Bicicletas works to center Indigenous, Black, Latine, and people of color in the Twin Cities through decolonizing and localizing our food system, community empowerment/resistance, sustainable transportation, and urban farming skills. Our greenhouse and farm supports our community by providing fresh crops and nutritious food for food insecure families especially during the winter months.