September’s SEED recipient is Dream of Wild Health. Dream of Wild Health is a Native 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. It is their mission to “restore health and well-being in the Native community by recovering knowledge of and access to healthy Indigenous foods, medicines and lifeways.”

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 Creamery Café bill for recipient organizations that share our commitment to a healthy community. As part of the staff-led selection process for 2019, co-op owners and community members were invited to vote for Community Choice SEED recipients. Learn more about becoming a SEED grant recipient here.

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

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.

Round up throughout May for Appetite for Change in North Minneapolis.

All donations made at the register go to our SEED grant recipient, and often total over $20,000.

Thank you to everyone who rounded up for Sexual Violence Center in April. We are currently tallying totals.

Our SEED program really speaks to the power of our cooperative community. In March, 51,381 shoppers collectively donated $22,728 for Soup for You Cafe, a radical soup kitchen down the street from the Franklin store.

About 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.

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.

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.

From early on in its history, Seward Co-op has made it a priority to give back to the community. “Concern for Community” is one of the seven fundamental principles of cooperation and in that spirit, the co-op launched SEED in 2011. SEED is a fundraising program that provides customers an opportunity to round-up their bill for organizations that share Seward’s commitment to a healthy community.

Now we are proud to announce this community giving program has surpassed $1 million in donations! Since SEED’s inception, more than 40 percent of co-op owners and shoppers have made upwards of 2 million individual donations. Over time, the co-op has also seen significant growth in total donations. When the SEED program was launched, the average total donation was around $8,000 per month. Since opening the Co-op Creamery Café and the Friendship store, the monthly average has increased to more than $23,000! The $1-million-dollar milestone and the growth of SEED has been possible because of you, co-op owners and shoppers. Thank you!

A few SEED highlights from over the years:

Donations from SEED have benefited more than 35 different community organizations and seven different emergency relief efforts. Over the years, there have been disasters —near and far —that have warranted preempting a recipient in order to use SEED dollars for disaster relief. In each instance, the response from co-op customers was astounding.

Since 2011, the Brian Coyle Center has been a SEED recipient 15 times, and they have received the most donations of any recipient, totaling more than $260,000. The Brian Coyle Center is located in the heart of Cedar-Riverside and strives to unite people across ethnicity and generations. The funds raised for Brian Coyle have specifically supported its food shelf, wherein $1 has the capacity to purchase more than a pound of food. The support of Seward customers has made a significant difference in the lives of individuals who benefit from the Brian Coyle Food Shelf. We look forward to rounding up for them again in September.

Since opening the Friendship store in the Bryant neighborhood, we have prioritized supporting organizations near there. Sabathani Community Center’s food shelf has been a recipient four times, and they will be a recipient again in December. Customers have donated more than $79,000 to Sabathani since May 2014. Sabathani provides a space where residents can gather in a welcoming environment, build community, conduct business, and receive programs and services that move people forward.

Co-ops set a standard for the surrounding business community by our commitment to environmental and social responsibility. The cooperative principle of “Concern for Community” guides us to work for the sustainable development of our communities. When we pool our resources, particularly through efforts like SEED, we make progress towards this end. Kudos to Front End staff, including cashiers and customer service staff at Franklin and Friendship and servers at the Creamery Café. They are the engines that drive our successful SEED program!

Become a SEED recipient–we are now accepting applications for 2017. The application deadline is August 1, 2016.