Together We Bake ($5000) - Together We Bake is a trauma-informed workforce development program for underserved women in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Through a unique combination of hands-on culinary training, job readiness support, life skills development, and on-going alumni engagement, TWB empowers women to achieve stability, financial independence, and personal growth.

The BIT Center ($5,000) - The BIT Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing community health, food justice, youth opportunity, and cultural enrichment across Baltimore. They offer a variety of community food distribution and nutrition programs, including a Mobile Food Bus to bring healthy food and nutrition education to neighborhoods with limited food access. Since 2020, they have distributed more than one million boxes of nutritious food and prepared and distributed more than 350,000 culturally-relevant healthy meals in their community. In addition to food-focused initiatives, they offer arts programming and events that celebrate heritage and identity while fostering creativity and belonging.

Community FarmShare ($5,000) - Community FarmShare is a Montgomery County, MD-based nonprofit working to create a thriving, equitable, connected food system that produces food, health and well-being for people who have the least access to healthy food options, while renewing and protecting the planet by supporting local small scale produce farmers.

Common Good City Farm ($5,000) - Common Good City Farm seeks to sustain and support a more equitable community through growing, learning, cooking, and sharing fresh food together. Their purpose is to work with their neighbors in nurturing a sustainable community space grounded in food justice, education, and connection. The six-week-long Teen Summer Program provides approximately 30 local teens (ages 14-18) with a paid opportunity to develop valuable skills in urban farming, entrepreneurship, and wellness. The program was developed in response to community demand for safe, enriching opportunities for youth, combining hands-on learning in urban agriculture with personal development and entrepreneurship.

Dreaming Out Loud, Inc., DC ($5,000) - DOL’s DREAM Program builds capacity and economic opportunity for women entrepreneurs in DC and it is an incubator for low-resourced food entrepreneurs. The program empowers participants through business training and technical assistance activities, and builds a supportive community network while contributing to an equitable food system. The current cohort is 72% women (18 out of 25), from Wards 7 and 8. 

The Family Place, DC ($5,000) - This grant supports upskilling for the Hospitality and Food Service Workers Program by offering industry-recognized credentialing. This includes ServeSafe (food-handler and food handler manager licensing); AHLI guest service professional certification (Guest Service Gold, Tourism); and adult and child CPR/First Aid. Together, the programs serve 90 participants per year, primarily low-income limited-English-speaking mothers of young children from Wards 1, 4, and 5. 

Horizons of Kent and Queen Anne’s, Maryland ($5,000) - Horizons in the Modern Stone Age Kitchen (MSAK) offers under-resourced middle school students food and nutrition education during hands-on sessions in the MSAK kitchen in Chestertown. The students develop new skills and confidence while also cultivating healthier eating habits for themselves and their families, which can help to offset food inequities that are endemic in low-income communities.

After School All Stars: Our $2,500 grant went to support healthy cooking and nutrition classes for students in six high-need D.C. public middle schools.

Four Eleven Kitchen, Inc. - $5,000 - Supporting the “Feed the People” program to create a community teaching garden for economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in a space donated by Habitat for Humanity. (Cambridge, MD)

After School All Stars - $2,500 - Supporting after-school healthy cooking and nutrition classes for students in six high-need public middle schools in the District of Columbia. (Washington D.C.)

Baltimore Outreach Services - $2,500 - Supporting the “Cooking and Conversations” lifeskills course for homeless women in the shelter, focusing on participants’ relationship with food while building their knowledge of cooking techniques. (Baltimore, MD)

Crossroads Community Food Network - $2,500 - Supporting the Microenterprise Development Program, which provides disadvantaged/low-income BIPOC food entrepreneurs with the skills and technical assistance they need to start and operate successful businesses. (Langley Crossroads/Takoma, MD)

Dog Tag Inc. - $2,500 - Supporting a training fellows program based in a women-led bakery for veterans (63% women) transitioning from military service into civilian life. Our funds will support 16 fellows in Cohort 18. (Washington, D.C.) 

La Cocina VA, $5,000. La Cocina creates careers by offering bilingual, vocational and technical education to underserved people of color, especially women. It also provides nutritious meals to those in need. The funding will support women in the organization’s Culinary Training Program to gain skills, certification and jobs, and women in its Small Business Incubator Program to start or expand food businesses. It will also help pay for student uniforms, training/study materials, certification costs, food used in training, and staff salaries.


Feed the Fridge, $5,000. Feed the Fridge places refrigerators in public spaces around greater Washington D.C. and pays local restaurants to fill them daily with fresh meals. The grant will provide meals for the fridge at Mary’s Center. Mary’s Center is a low- and no-cost community health clinic that sees 160 patients daily, more than half of whom are females of childbearing age who visit the prenatal health providers. Both Feed the Fridge and Mary’s Center are led by women.

Community Farm Share, $5,000. Community FarmShare is focused on food equity and providing healthy fresh produce to families who do not have access to it due to its cost and lack of availability in their communities. It provides culturally appropriate recipe cards with the fresh produce bags and encourages parents to cook with their children. The produce is provided each week to the same families, who have children in a school that is 65% Hispanic, 25% Black and 10% other racial and ethnic identities.     

The Grants Committee is delighted to announce the first round of grant applications have been reviewed and approved by the Board. And the recipients are:

La Cocina VA - $5,000 To support women in their Culinary Training Program, which offers comprehensive services to reduce the barriers that low-income, immigrant, and women of color face to access training opportunities, gain employment, and lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty. Click here for more information.

Community Bridges - $2,500 To support female high school students in under resourced communities through their College and Career Planning Program, and through our grant, to offer opportunities to explore career options in food and hospitality. Click here for more information.

Baltimore Outreach Services - $1,500 To support their Culinary Arts Training Program which is available to women in their shelter as well as those who have transitioned to housing. The training program provides women with the skills they need to pursue a career in commercial food service. Click here for more information. 

We dispersed three grants and our recipients are excited to share current developments and plans for the future.
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La Cocina Va (awarded $5,000) is expanding services to its culinary Small Business Incubator for low income entrepreneurs, including funding for advertising, developing and supplying training materials, and hiring a coordinator to oversee social media and its shared kitchen for food businesses.
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Baltimore Outreach Services (awarded $1,500), a shelter for women overcoming homelessness, completed the first eight-week culinary arts training program of the year, of which two graduates were offered employment with the cruising ship, The Spirit of Baltimore. They are currently in the second eight-week rotation and added an introductory course, “Cooking and Conversation,” a program focused on food mindfulness and self care with Chef April DuBose.

Community Bridges (awarded $2,500), a non-profit organization empowering girls and young women from diverse backgrounds, plans to dedicate funds to their college and career program which assists recent high school graduates. 

Crossroads Community Food Network's Young Women's Summer Cooking Club - Crossroads' Young Women's Cooking Club strives to connect at-risk, teen-aged women in the Takoma/Langley communities to healthy eating information and access, culinary skills, and unique farm to table experiences to further strengthen their simultaneous participation as Crossroads' volunteers. Our grant funds will cover ingredient and supply costs for cooking classes, as well as scholarship funds for ServSafe Food Handler certification. Upon completion of the program, each participant will also receive a gift certificate in the form of produce vouchers for the market.

Campus Kitchens Project at University of Maryland Eastern Shore's Rockville Campus  - The Campus Kitchens Project is a service program for students in UMES's Hospitality and Tourism Management program that delivers fresh, healthy, kid-friendly family-sized meals to families experiencing homelessness. CKP collaborates with The Dwelling Place, a supportive housing agency, Wells Robinson, a sober living community, and Nourish Now, a food rescue organization. Our grant will be used to support ingredient and meal production costs, as well as leadership training opportunities for the volunteer students.
 
Eco City Farms  - Eco City is a nonprofit urban agriculture and educational center located in Prince Georges County, Maryland that serves the predominately low income and working-class communities of color adjacent to their two farms in Bladensburg and Edmonston.  Eco City experienced significant damage to its growing spaces this winter from the record cold weather and wind storms that reduced their capacity to grow and distribute healthy food and to protect new seedlings from cold. Our grant will be used to repair, replace, and reinforce all growing spaces and structures.
 
WANDA (Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture) - WANDA empowers women and girls of African descent in food, agriculture and nutrition through mentorship, service leadership, and training opportunities. Our grant will support the development of programming for WANDA's Sisterhood of the Soil retreat at Black Dirt Farm in Calvert County and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Museum, as well as Little Wanda Garden Day in Ward 8.