The Sexual Violence Center, a nonprofit rape crisis center in Minneapolis, provides free support services to individuals impacted by sexual violence in Hennepin, Scott and Carver counties. The center is one of four Community Choice SEED recipients, which our owners and shoppers voted to select.

To make a donation to the Sexual Violence Center (SVC), round up at the register at all Seward Co-op locations throughout April. The center will use the SEED grant funds to help build a gender-neutral bathroom at its office.

About Seward Co-op’s SEED Grant Program
For more than 45 years, Seward Co-op has been committed to giving back to our community. In 2011, we introduced SEED, a new way for customers to participate in this commitment. This simple yet powerful community giving program allows customers to round up their grocery or Seward Co-op Creamery Café bill for recipient organizations that share our commitment to a healthy community. As part of the staff-led selection process for 2019, owners and shoppers were invited to contribute further by voting for Community Choice SEED recipients. Learn more about becoming a SEED grant recipient here.

About Sexual Violence Center
The center’s mission is to eradicate sexual violence and abuse by:

•Challenging the systems and individuals that promote privilege, oppression and domination
•Educating those that will join us as advocates and catalysts for change
•Supporting those who have been victimized, empowering them to not only survive but thrive, finding power and movement in our collective voices

Since 1985, the Sexual Violence Center has been serving youth and adult victim/survivors of sexual violence 12 years of age and older. The center works in Hennepin, Carver and Scott counties, with services coordinated out of its office in Minneapolis. The center will never turn anyone away from service if they live outside of these counties, but it can often refer people to a local agency that has connections with more specific resources to help.

All of the center’s services are provided by sexual assault advocates. The role of an advocate is to provide information, offer options and support victims and survivors in their decisions. Services include:

•24-hour crisis support telephone line staffed by trained advocates
•Individual, in-person counseling giving intensive, directed support to victims and survivors
•Support groups for victims and survivors, as well as friends and family of victims
•Crisis support in hospitals
•Legal advocacies through which the center advocates that victim/survivors have the resources they need to file restraining orders, navigate the criminal justice system and get connected to legal representation

Where is SVC located?
In northeast Minneapolis (2021 East Hennepin Ave., suite 418 in the Hennepin Square Building)

What will donations to SVC be used for?
Funds raised by the community allow SVC to keep services free and support its ability to
• Print materials to spread the word about services
• Purchase art supplies for support groups
• Serve food to volunteers at its 40-hour advocacy training
• Make services more accessible to victim/survivors of all genders and abilities

Does SVC need volunteers?
Yes! SVC has a peer-based advocacy model. The majority of services are provided by volunteers who’ve gone through SVC’s 40-hour training to become certified sexual assault advocates under Minnesota state statute. The next training cycle starts May 7. Contact SVC for more information.

Learn more about Sexual Violence Center at sexualviolencecenter.org.

We’re looking ahead to 2019, which will feature our first year of Community Choice SEED grant recipients. Our selection process for our 12 yearly SEED recipients is entirely staff-led, with the majority of cashiers serving on the committee. Show your support to our front-end staff by rounding up at the register throughout the year!

Here are our 2019 SEED grant recipients and the months during which they’ll receive funds. There will be one Community Choice recipient each quarter.

January: Mental Health Resources (Community Choice)
Mental Health Resources’ Seward Community Support Program (“CSP”) drop-in center on Minnehaha Avenue provides healthy snacks, meals, and health mentoring for 400 neighbors who are recovering from serious mental illness so they can thrive physically and mentally.

February: Cultural Wellness Center
The Dreamland Co-Café, a project of the Cultural Wellness Center, will create a blend of Culinary Heritage, self-love, and business incubation for African American food entrepreneurs in a cooperative and supportive environment that will allow us to reconnect, rediscover and reinvent the culinary traditions of our past.

Come sit around the “farm table” at the Seward Co-op Creamery Café and learn more about the Cultural Wellness Center 6-8 p.m. Feb. 19. Enjoy a meal designed by Creamery Café staff and inspired by this work, with ingredients sourced from Community Foods producers. Tickets are limited and may be purchased via Eventbrite.

March: Soup for You Café
Soup for You provides free, healthy, organic meals to all members of our community, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. We build community one bowl at a time.

April: Sexual Violence Center (Community Choice)
Sexual Violence Center, a nonprofit rape crisis center in Minneapolis, provides free support services to individuals impacted by sexual violence in Hennepin, Scott, and Carver counties. Funds from this program will help us build a gender-neutral bathroom in our office.

May: Appetite For Change
Appetite For Change advocates for food justice and economic development in North Minneapolis, with SEED funds supporting our Youth Training and Opportunity Program and our policy and advocacy work through Northside Fresh Coalition.

June: Urban Strategies, Inc./Green Garden Bakery (Community Choice)
Green Garden Bakery youth, supported by the nonprofit Urban Strategies, Inc., grow vegetables in their urban garden, bake them into healthy vegetable-based desserts (vegan and gluten-free), and market them using sustainable practices. We sell the desserts for “pay-what-you-want” and donate our
proceeds back into our community.

July: Isuroon
Isuroon is dedicated to building support for Somali women and girls social connectedness and self-sufficiency so that they can lead healthier, more productive lives 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.

August: Southside Services, Inc.
Southside Services supports adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities to become increasingly active, contributing members of their community.

September: Dream of Wild Health
Dream of Wild Health is a Native American-led nonprofit farm that provides leadership programs for Native youth. Dream of Wild Health grows indigenous seeds and foods and supports Native youth in advocating for a healthy community.

October: Village Financial Cooperative
Village is establishing a loan fund to disrupt the predatory financial market; establishing a Black-led credit union, filling the void of accessible and affordable banking; and providing cooperative development for emerging co-ops in North Minneapolis.

November: Sabathani Community Center
Sabathani provides food, clothing and housing to 26,000 neighborhood residents each year in South Minneapolis. We feed the chronically poor, those on disability or chemical dependent individuals and families. Sabathani Community Center has been providing basic
needs services for nearly fifty years.

December: Open Arms of Minnesota (Community Choice)
Open Arms cooks and delivers free meals tailored to meet the nutritional needs of individuals living with life-threatening illnesses. They also serve the children and caretakers of those living with illness, free of charge.

Our 2019 SEED grant recipients, including those chosen by the Community Choice public vote, were announced at the Annual Owner Meeting on Oct. 30.

We’re proud that selection for our 12 yearly SEED recipients is led entirely by co-op staff, with a majority of cashiers serving on the committee. This year, the staff committee selected eight of the 12 recipients for 2019, leaving one Community Choice recipient per quarter.

The eight SEED recipients selected this summer are:

Appetite For Change
Cultural Wellness Center
Dream of Wild Health
Isuroon
Sabathani Community Center
Soup for You Café
Southside Services, Inc.
Village Financial Cooperative

Community Choice
Seward Co-op owners and customers were invited to select four SEED recipients from a list of 10 finalists reviewed by the staff-led grant committee.

The four organizations with the highest vote totals are part of Seward Co-op’s 2019 SEED recipient calendar. All 10 organizations on this list will receive a small grant through the Seward Community Fund, whether or not they are ultimately selected as a SEED recipient. Nearly 2,000 community members and co-op owners participated during the voting period between September 19-Oct 10.

The 2019 Community Choice SEED Recipients are:

Mental Health Resources
Open Arms of Minnesota
Sexual Violence Center
Green Garden Bakery

Seward Co-op owners have so much to be proud of—with an average donation of only 40 cents per transaction, we are able to raise over $20,000 every single month through the SEED round-up program. It’s a great example of the power of cooperation, and the program is a national model within the co-op movement.

Thank you to everyone who voted—and to everyone who donates when they shop!

There is tremendous progress to report. Over the past several months the project has received zoning and land use approvals, as well as all of the permits required to build the new store. And recently, the project financing was completed, which allowed the co-op to purchase the last remaining parcel of land from the City of Minneapolis. This purchase coincided with the reassembly of the former parcels into one new property address, 317 38th Street East, the home of the Friendship store.

In the weeks ahead we plan to complete the demolition and utility work. During that time the site will be cleared of debris and the concrete footings and foundation for the new building will framed and poured.Work began on the site in August after two of the reusable houses were moved to new locations in the neighborhood and two were removed. The site plan calls for a new east-west section of alley at the southern end of the property. This section of alley was completed in September to allow the existing alley outlet at 38th Street to be permanently vacated. Demolition of the church building has started, and is being carried out in coordination with utility companies to ensure existing service lines are permanently rerouted around the perimeter of the property without disruption of service to their customers.

Thank you!
There are numerous people and organizations to thank for their support and for their help in getting this incredibly complex project to this stage: the Bryant and Central neighborhood groups, the Carrot Initiative, immediate neighbors, Sabathani Community Center staff, the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, city staff, Councilperson Glidden and her staff, HIRED staff, co-op Board of Directors and staff, the project team, the lender team, co-op owners for investing in the project, and the list goes on. Thank you everyone!