Community Choice voting is closed. We will announce the winners at our Annual Owner Meeting on Oct 27.

Each year, a staff-led grant committee takes great care to evaluate all applications and determining the following years’ 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.

In 2026 there will be eight SEED recipients, four of which have been selected by a Seward Co-op staff-led committee, and four which will be selected by our community through a Community Choice vote. Four months will be dedicated to Seward Co-op’s needs-based program, which assists households with financial need purchase their groceries. These four months will be spread out over the course of the year.

Learn about the Community Choice finalists below, and cast your vote for your top four organizations by Tuesday, Oct. 14. Then, join us at our Annual Owner Meeting on Monday, Oct. 27 as we announce the 2026 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.

Cempazúchitl Collective
Cempazúchitl Collective promotes self-sufficiency and teaches culturally relevant ways of harvesting and processing wild foods on occupied Dakhóta lands—creating space for cultural resilience, healing, and ancestral wisdom. Cempazúchitl Collective spaces center the experiences of Indigenous youth and two-spirit, queer and trans folks, while nurturing multicultural, multiracial communities working in solidarity towards collective liberation.

SEED funds will be used for general operating costs and providing free programming, focusing on local foraging, harvesting and food processing of Native foods that can be found in the Twin Cities.

Full Cycle
Pillsbury United Communities’ Full Cycle engages unhoused and at-risk youth in South Minneapolis through bikes, business, and community. Funds will support youth employment and bike-powered food deliveries that provide healthy meals to young people facing hunger.

SEED funds will be used to support youth employment and bike-powered food delivery, providing healthy meals to unhoused and housing-insecure youth in South Minneapolis.

Immigrant Law Center of MN
The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota helps immigrants and refugees gain legal status, work authorization, and citizenship so they can build safer, more stable lives in our communities.

SEED funds will support free legal services and community outreach for immigrants and refugees in Minnesota, including legal help with work permits, green cards, and citizenship.

Kilimo Minnesota
Kilimo Minnesota is an incubator farm where emerging farmers of African descent grow vegetables organically for the local community and offer a variety of produce and traditional African greens. Participants gain access to farm facilities, sales aggregation services, and mentorship, preparing them to purchase their own regenerative farms upon completing the program.

SEED funds will be used for technical assistance support with post-harvest handling, food safety, aggregation and delivery.

Kiwi Cares

Kiwi Cares works to improve maternal health outcomes in the Twin Cities by bringing birthing people together, giving new parents access to essentials like strollers, car seats, transportation and fresh fruits and vegetables.

SEED funds will fund pumping supplies, baby carriers and transportation to Lactation Lounges, as well as help fund new parents’ breastfeeding support programs. Funds will also be used to pilot a nutrition program for CSAs that will be distributed through clinics and doula programs to new parents, and to help buy families necessary kitchen items.

Sisters’ Camelot
Sisters’ Camelot nourishes our community and prevents food waste with free organic groceries and meals.

SEED funds will be used to hold a weekly free community meal at New City Center for Healing Justice, serving healthy organic food with vegetarian and vegan options. Meals will be delivered to our unhoused neighbors, as well as shared with all community members who wish to join us each week.

The Good Acre
The Good Acre purchases food from local BIPOC farmers and sells it to wholesale customers who buy in quantities that are too big for a single farmer to fill. This work helps build wealth for those farmers and makes our food system more resilient.

SEED funds will support The Good Acre’s Pay What You Can Community Supported Agriculture program, increasing accessibility to fresh produce, mitigating food insecurity, and furthering the program’s financial sustainability.

Twin Cities Broadband Cooperative
The Twin Cities Broadband Cooperative creates community-owned internet infrastructure to address digital redlining while connecting residents to food security resources and digital literacy training.

SEED funds will be used for our Digital Access and Food Justice Program, including equipment for digital literacy training, internet access to connect residents to food assistance programs, and support for local food businesses with digital marketing and online ordering capabilities.