Jeanette Padilla Vega, Food Justice Coalition’s Founder, teaches a cooking class as part of community enrichment programming.
According to Jeanette Padilla Vega, the founder and CEO of the Food Justice Coalition (FJC), humanity’s greatest unifier is food. As she put it, her organization is “trying to change the world one rice bowl at a time.” As I observed her community cooking class and the aromas of her vegan chicken curry filled the air, I believed in her food’s world-changing power.
There is a difference between what is safe to eat and what can be sold at a grocery store. Best-by and sell-by dates are not designed to be safety dates; rather they’re reference points indicating when foods may have the best flavor or quality. Similarly, bruised or oddly shaped foods may be rejected by grocery stores, even though they’re still nutritious and safe to eat.
Food Not Bombs is a global organization committed to food recovery, equity and mutual aid. The Salt Lake City chapter has been operating continuously since 1999. The group has built relationships with local food providers such as Natural Grocers, Good Earth Markets, and City Cakes Bakery. Each week, volunteers pick up food from these locations that is edible but unsellable to redistribute to the community.
In the summer, the Salt Lake Valley is ripe with fruit. Through farmers’ markets or programs like the Green Urban Lunch Box, people all over the valley are able to enjoy it. But come winter, that fresh supply dries up.
Katie Lawson’s Salt Lake Canning Co. is working to fill that gap: in 2021 and 2022, the organization canned hundreds of jars of local fruit for distribution to senior citizens, and with the money received from Salt Lake City’s Food Equity Microgrant program, she hopes to do even more this year.
In mid-July, Wasatch Community Gardens is filled to the brim with lush green vegetable plants, vibrant swaths of flowers, and stooping trees laden with fruit. It is mostly organized into neat sections and rows, but a verdant patch on the southeast edge, boasting many different textures and massive sunflowers reaching to the sky, is more freeform.
This is the Growing Traditions section of the garden, designed for the Sabores de Mi Patria program with Artes de Mexico en Utah to represent traditional agricultural practices from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Sabores de Mi Patria translates to “flavors of my homeland.”
Vanavil Community Garden, one of the 2023 food equity microgrant winners, is located in the Ballpark area and is run by Priya Chidambaram. Priya started the Vanavil Community Garden as a renter; with her landlord’s approval, she transformed the yard into a garden and built a community around it. Since then, Priya has purchased her own house in the Ballpark area and relocated the gardens there.
Priya named the garden ‘Vanavil’ as it means ‘rainbow’ in her native language, Tamil. The name initially came from the desire to grow colorful and diverse crops such as yellow tomatoes and purple carrots. However, Priya notes the name has grown to represent inclusivity as well.
By SLCgreen Intern Emma Johnsonand Staff Jude Westwood
On Salt Lake City’s West Side, near the old water park, lives a sizable herd of goats. The same piece of land also houses sheep, chickens, beehives, and many garden plots filled with a variety of plants.
Although the Farm is managed by Roots, Utah’s first farm-based charter school, fifteen of the goats on the property are owned by the “The New American Goat Club.” The Goat Club is a summer educational program for refugee and immigrant youth interested in learning about goat husbandry. It’s also one of SLCgreen’s 2023 Food Equity Microgrant awardees.
Today Mayor Mendenhall and the Salt Lake City Sustainability Department announced the list of groups that have been awarded funding through the SLC Food Equity Microgrant pilot program, which launched earlier this year.
The new grant program provided $35,000 in total funding to increase residents’ access to fresh, healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant food by supporting community-led projects aligned with the recommendations from the City’s Resident Food Equity Advisors’ 2021 Report. Projects led by and serving those who identify as members of groups that have been most negatively impacted by the food system were prioritized for funding, and accessibility and equity were central to the program’s design and goals.
Many of our local farmers are in business because they love it, but it’s a tough, physically-demanding job with tight financial margins.
Salt Lake City understands the value of healthy, local food as well as the benefit that farmers bring to our local community and economy.
That’s why, in 2017, Salt Lake City launched the Local Food Microgrant Program with Urban Food Connections of Utah, the non-profit organization that runs the Downtown Farmers Market, Rio Grande Winter Market, and Tuesday Harvest Market.
“We’re delighted to partner with Urban Food Connections of Utah to give farmers the critical boost they need to invest back in their operations!”
Mayor Biskupski
There have been three funding cycles so far (check out round 1,round 2, and round 3 recipients). We’re excited to allocate the latest $15,000 for a running total of $60,000 in microgrant funding to assist local, small-scale farmers who want to expand their operations with sustainability in mind. The microgrant fund is one of SLCgreen’s Local Food programs helping achieve our goal of increasing overall access to fresh, healthy food for all members of the SLC community.
Congratulations are in order for seven Utah farms!
Salt Lake City is proud to unveil a new grant program, offering $85,000 to spur local sustainable farming efforts.
Because just 3 percent of the fruits and 2 percent of the vegetables consumed by residents are grown in Utah, this program aims to support a more resilient local food system.
In partnership with Urban Food Connections of Utah—the non-profit affiliated with the Downtown Alliance– we’ll be granting money to farmers who want to expand their operations with sustainability in mind. Continue reading →
