The Amazing Give 2024

The Amazing Give 2024 image

Working Food supports seed and food sovereignty, youth education and leadership, and small business development through our three programs: Seed, Youth and Kitchen. These programs help us contribute to a just and sustainable local food community where all flourishing is mutual.

Seed

Seeds are one of the most valuable resources for us all- nearly every bite of food we eat started from a seed! Working with farmers, community gardeners, and backyard gardeners, we steward a wide diversity of crop varieties and provide critical seed saving education. Our aim is to collectively share and steward these precious resources so our community of growers will always have access to the very best locally adapted and culturally significant varieties for our area.

This past year, we offered 103 total varieties of seeds, with 75% being local varieties.

Your donation supports resilient, local seed stewardship:

  • Average monthly cost of seed bank and greenhouse maintenance: $100
  • Average monthly cost of seed garden maintenance: $125
  • Average monthly cost of community seed donations: $200
  • Average cost of materials for a new seed trial: $750

Youth

Every day, we’re honored to empower young people through food. We lead five flourishing youth gardens, where kids learn about gardening, science, art, cooking, composting, seed-saving, and other grounding skills. We also engage teens and young adults in culinary programming that nurtures leadership qualities and paves the way for meaningful employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. Together, these programs help empower the next generation of farmers, food entrepreneurs, and social movement leaders.

We taught 296 hours of classes in our youth programs last year, including 134 gardening classes and 30 cooking classes.

You donation supports empowering programs for kids, teens, and young adults:

  • Average monthly cost of youth specialty class supplies: $50
  • Average monthly cost of healthy snacks for students: $85
  • Average monthly cost of in-garden cooking class supplies: $100
  • Average monthly cost of youth gardening class supplies: $200

Kitchen

In order for our local food web to truly flourish, we need food businesses that support local growers, preserve cultural traditions, create meaningful jobs, and build our local economy. Through our Kitchen Program, we offer accessible space to aspiring food entrepreneurs in a fully-equipped, certified commercial kitchen with production, cooking, packaging, and storage amenities. This affordable and scalable kitchen access reduces barriers to entry, ensuring locally owned businesses, including caterers, food trucks, farmers’ market vendors, and farmers, can thrive.

In the last year, we’ve served 44 food businesses, with 86% being BIPOC, women, or veteran-owned.

Your donation allows local food entrepreneurship to grow and thrive:

  • Average cost of onboarding a new food entrepreneur: $175
  • Average monthly cost of supplies to run the kitchen: $300
  • Average monthly cost of facility maintenance: $750