Plantation Park Heights (PPH) Urban Farm grows food, flowers, and herbs of various varieties for the community and local pantry. PPH workforce now includes 250 elementary school children, 33 teachers, 39 parents and is on a mission to grow 200,000 pounds of food to address the community’s “food desert” designation. PPH organizers will be able to address community need during the pandemic by distributing cooked food and need the construction of a demonstration kitchen to engage residents in the process. The CSRC grant will be used to design and build a demonstration kitchen on site with the dual goal of providing community with prepared food and advance Food Supplement Nutrition Education within the community. The proposed Food Distribution and Outdoor Kitchen project will engage and impact communities associated with 5 schools in the neighborhoods (MLK Elementary, Edgecombe Circle Elementary, Pimlico Elementary/Middle, Creative City Public Charter , Arlington Elementary). All programming will be coordinated with support Park Heights Renaissance Community Education Outreach Team and the school Principals. Dr. Shauna Henley of University of Maryland Extension, Baltimore County, will join as consumer food safety specialist.

The Black Church Food Security Network (BCFSN) was founded in 2015 and specializes in recruiting, organizing, and mobilizing African American congregations around food system initiatives, environmental conservation, and agricultural projects. We utilize an asset-based community development model that helps churches leverage and maximize their existing resources for community food security. In 2017, we partnered with Northside Baptist Church in north Baltimore to establish a community garden which featured five raised beds. Now, we’re taking another step with them to transform 5-acres of their underutilized land into North Star Farm, an urban teaching farm that will support youth, neighbors, and others in the farm and faith communities. During enslavement of Africans in this country, the "north star" figured prominently in guiding runaway enslaved people toward freedom. Additionally, Frederick Douglass published an anti-slavery newspaper called "The North Star" from 1847 - 1851. We believe that North Star Farm can honor this history by pointing the way to freedom through food, autonomy, and communal self-determination. The farm will serve as a fresh food hub and food processing site. The food grown at the farm will be processed and transported to other BCFSN food hubs across Baltimore City for distribution at Soil to Sanctuary markets. The CSRC grant will support the establishment of North Star Farm. The North Star Farm organized by the BCFSN will serve as a community food anchor by increasing food security especially to the population most directly and disproportionately impacted. The farm will be in a unique position to offer experiential learning opportunities with youth in the district while simultaneously advancing community-resilience.

The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust is an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that returns Indigenous land to Indigenous people. It was founded in 2012 with the goals of returning traditionally Chochenyo and Karkin lands in the San Francisco Bay Area to Indigenous stewardship and cultivating more active, reciprocal relationships with the land. Through the practices of rematriation, cultural revitalization, and land restoration, Sogorea Te’ calls on native and non-native peoples to heal and transform the legacies of colonization, genocide, and patriarchy and to do the work our ancestors and future generations are calling us to do. The CSRC grant will be used to expand food production and distribution for members of urban Indigenous communities who have been affected by COVID-19.

The Humunya Foundation of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is a 501 (c) (3) Private Foundation. The Humunya Foundation was created to fund raise, facilitate Tribal cultural activities and conduct outreach to the public. The Humunya Foundation supports the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band Wellness program that includes monthly membership meetings focused on our communities mental and physical health in dealing with the historical traumas of our ancestors and how that affects our people today. Along with cultural and language activities including our annual tribal gathering, the Foundation also provides social services and organization for efforts such as: fighting to protect our sacred sites, educating the general public about our culture, history and the injustices of our people through lack of land and the challenges of being a Non-Federally Recognized Tribe. Because the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is not a federally recognized tribe, they receive no medical, educational, social services or elder care assistance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Many of the approximately 800 tribal members live paycheck to paycheck and do not have health insurance. Members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band have organized the Amah Mutsun Families COVID-19 Relief Fund to assist Amah Mutsun tribal members who are being impacted by the pandemic. Funds will be used for personal protective equipment (PPE), food, elder care, medical supplies and transportation, school-related supplies/technology for distance learning, rent assistance for those most in need.

The Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore (MCCCB) was established in 1990 at 3401 West North Avenue in Leakin Park, it is associated with the original Muslim Community that began in Baltimore in 1947. Their mission is to provide spiritual, cultural, educational and social resources to the Greater Baltimore Metropolitan Area and establish a vibrant community in the Greater Walbrook Neighborhood. The CSRC grant will help support repairs to the MCCB building in order to maintain their social service programs during the pandemic.

Somebody Cares Baltimore (SCB) is a religious organization that is deeply involved in community development through grass roots service. Matt and his wife Katy founded Somebody Cares Baltimore in the Spring of 2009. The focus is on connecting agencies, churches, and organizations together to collaborate and revitalize communities. We connect people to opportunities to serve their community, and connect organizations to work together, because what we do together far outweighs what we can do on our own. Throughout the year, SCB provides Bags of Hope with hygiene products, Boxes of Hope with blankets, a Day of Hope with school supplies. The CSRC grant will help provide 1,750 Meals of Hope, which are 40lb boxes filled with assorted fresh produce and other food for families in Baltimore.