2024 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 four of the twelve SEED recipients from a pool of applicants. During the 2023 Annual Owner Meeting we announced the 2024 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 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 2024 SEED Community Choice recipients are East Phillips Neighborhood Institute, Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, Roosevelt Culinary Arts, and Tamales y Bicicletas. Thank you to all those who voted!

Learn more about all of the 2024 SEED recipients below.

Little Earth

A group of children helping on a farm
The Little Earth Urban Farm provides culturally relevant foods to the nearly 1,200 residents at Minneapolis-based Little Earth, a Housing and Urban Development subsidized housing complex founded in 1973 that remains the only Native preference project-based Section 8 rental assistance community in the urban United States. The food at Little Earth Urban Farm is planted, grown, harvested, and distributed by the participants of their Youth Workforce Development Program, a paid 15 hour/week internship during the growing season which provides an outlet and opportunity for growth for many resident youth aged 6-17. Funds from the November SEED program will help provide equipment to the farm, provide an internship stipend for Youth Workforce participants, and provide financial operations assistance to the farm year-round.

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2024 SEED Recipients:

The 2024 SEED recipients are listed below by the month they will be featured. The Community Choice recipients are listed in purple.

January

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 space. It will include an indoor hydroponic-aquaponic farm, a low-income housing complex, one of the largest solar arrays in any Midwestern city, a community gathering and wellness space, a café, world market, a bike shop right on the Greenway, and more.

February

Cultural Wellness Center

For nearly 30 years, the Cultural Wellness Center has advanced its mission to unleash the power of people to heal themselves and build community. Founded and sustained by African Americans, the cultural nonprofit is breaking ground in spring 2024 on Dreamland on 38th Street., Its future world headquarters will include a shared commercial kitchen and co-cafe for food entrepreneurs and a community gathering and event space located just across 4th Avenue from Seward Co-op’s Friendship Store.

March

Isuroon

Isuroon’s food shelf provides culturally-specific food staples that meet the dietary preferences and religious restrictions of Somali women and their families.

April

Cempazúchitl Collective

Cempazúchitl Collective is an Indigenous-led organization that empowers Indigenous, Two Spirit, and African-descended queer and trans folks by teaching culturally relevant ways of harvesting and processing wild foods.

May

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. Their greenhouse and farm support the community by providing fresh crops and nutritious food for food insecure families, especially during the winter months.

June

RECLAIM

RECLAIM provides financially accessible, specialized mental health care to queer and trans youth ages 12-25. Funds will be used to support a BIPOC therapist consultation group and will support the addition of a therapist to their team.

July

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop

Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop helps incarcerated people tell their 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.

August

Dream of Wild Health

Dream of Wild Health is celebrating 25 years of working to restore health and wellbeing within the Twin Cities Native American community! SEED funds will support their Youth Education and Leadership programs, which provide culturally-based lessons for Native youth to learn about regenerative organic gardening, healthy foods preparation and nutrition, and Native cultural traditions while gaining employment and leadership skills.

September

Roosevelt Culinary Arts

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

October

Wicoie Nandagikendan Early Childhood Dakota and Ojibwe Urban Immersion Program

Wicoie Nandagikendan (Wee-choyee yay – nanda -gii cane den) is the first Indigenous urban preschool immersion program created in Minneapolis. Their mission is to advance Minnesota’s Indigenous languages through intergenerational mentoring and immersion strategies in order to nurture a quality and culturally sensitive early childhood education.

November

Little Earth

The Little Earth Urban Farm began in 2010 to inspire hope, nurture growth, uphold cultural traditions, improve the health of Native families that have experienced generations of systemic oppression, and provide a physical cultural connection. SEED funds will be used to support their Youth Workforce Development program that employs youth aged 6-17 for the farm season.

December

Kilimo Minnesota

Kilimo Minnesota is an organic incubator farm with a mission to socially and economically empower emerging farmers of African descent. Founded in 2020 by established farmers Moses and Lonah Momanyi, Kilimo is a space for healing, learning, and building community for Black farmers in Minnesota.