Food insecurity is at the forefront of community concerns, as the latest round of Joyce Foundation grantees can attest.
The private organization usually invests in potential solutions to racial, equity and economic problems, and works to have those solutions inform public policy decisions in the Great Lakes region, but it pivoted to direct service funding in 2020 with its Lend a Hand Fund. Created in response to societal shortcomings exacerbated by the pandemic and systemic racism, the fund evolved from a rapid-response initiative to support BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving community organizations to something longer that seeks to fill a gap in community needs not met by city, county, state or federal assistance.
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“As the nature of the crisis evolved, so did the fund,” said Kayce Ataiyero, Joyce Foundation’s chief external affairs officer.
With an average grant amount of $25,000, the fund has assisted 37 community organizations since its inception in 2020, she said. “We established a million-dollar fund to help these communities with funding for a variety of COVID-related needs from PPE and testing to rental assistance and food support. No matter what the focus of the organization, you had people in the community calling for all kinds of things — what is being asked of you that you don’t normally provide or don’t normally have a capacity for — and we said ‘how can we help you bridge that gap? This is about bridging the gaps.”
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Recent Lend a Hand Fund recipients include Shepherd’s HOPE Ltd., Bright Star Community Outreach Corp., St. Sabina Church, Chicago Fund on Aging and Disability, Grow Greater Englewood, La Casa Norte, Enlace Chicago, New Life Centers (which just opened the Pan de Vida Fresh Market in Little Village), Greater Auburn Gresham Development Corp., Dion’s Chicago Dream, Just Roots Chicago and The Southwest Collective. Recipients of Lend a Hand grants are recommended to the Joyce by other community organizations serving Chicagoans at their point of need.
Dion Dawson, founder of Dion’s Chicago Dream, is using Lend a Hand grant funds to help expand his initiatives Project Dream Fridge, a community refrigerator in his Englewood neighborhood, and Dream Deliveries, free food delivery to homes in food deserts across the city and suburbs. Already serving 1,300 residents per week, he said his nonprofit is slated to scale up to serve 4,000 residents per week by the second quarter of 2023.
“We’re for, by, and built to be a solution moving forward,” Dawson said. “Most people thought it would fail, giving people brand-new fresh produce, but now every single day, week, month and year we’ve always fed somebody brand-new fresh produce and that’s what matters. We know that the need is there, and we’re poised to meet it and show people that the same money that is in philanthropy now can be used in a way that can start building a foundation and relationships around focusing on the end user experience instead of the donor experience.”
Jamie Groth Searle founded the “small, but mighty” Southwest Collective right before the pandemic and has been spending the past two-plus years connecting folks to food through free farmers markets and community fridges. “It’s about giving people options, choices, and not telling them what to eat, how to live. Trying to make more things available to people so that they can choose what they would like versus what they can afford,” she said.
Searle, who’s executive director, said the $30,000 grant will go toward operational costs for the volunteer-led organization centered on breaking down invisible barriers on the city’s Southwest Side. “There’s no reason there shouldn’t be a community fridge in every single district, ward, community, every public school. It’s unacceptable that we’ve all been out here doing this work out of necessity because the government is asleep at the wheel. Larger-scale change is needed, it can’t continue to fall on neighborhood groups.”
Sean Ruane, Just Roots Chicago’s director of operations and development, said the $50,000 the five-year-old organization received will go to expanding educational programming on their two farms. With a focus on sustainable agriculture, education and community building, Just Roots provides free classes to equip people with skills and resources to grow their own food and understand nutrition, and cooking workshops along with farm dinners.
“We grow food locally and sustainably,” Ruane said. “We grow over 35 different culturally relevant fruits and vegetables for neighboring communities. Fifty percent we donate to local food pantries, mutual aid organizations, public housing, and partners like that. The other 50% we sell at an affordable price through our weekly farm stand, local farmers markets and a farm subscription program. We’re trying to get food directly into the hands of residents in the community.”
While new to the direct service funding space, the Joyce Foundation is doing what it can to be a good neighbor by building relationships within communities and having conversations with organizations therein. Ataiyero said the foundation is taking cues from the community on what they need and how Joyce can be most responsive to it.
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“We have a commitment to continue this work with these groups, and to continue to find ways that we can be supportive, because the effects of COVID are going to linger for a very long time in these communities,” she said. “Chicago takes a lot of hits with the challenges that we have. And we have a lot but we also have a lot of really amazing community organizations that are working every day to meet those challenges and to push our city to live up to her promise. And these are groups that are doing that work with very little fanfare, limited resources, but are making a huge impact on the lives of everyday Chicagoans and it’s been really great to be able to support them.”
The Joyce Foundation is accepting recommendations for future grantees. Reach out to info@Joycefdn.org for information.
