GRANTMAKING
IOWA VALLEY RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT Project: Building the Capacity of Regional Food Partners to Establish a Food Hub in the Corridor When the Cedar Rapids Blue Zone Food Subcommittee identified a food hub as an important piece to help grow the purchase of local food in the community, the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development successfully applied to the Community Foundation for a grant to determine the economic feasibility for its food cooperative to serve as a regional food hub. This included a pilot project of a local wholesale produce partnership with Cedar Rapids Metro Hy-Vee stores. The pilot helped ten local farmers meet the product standardization and labelling requirements of grocery stores. The result was over $80,000 of product sold to eight Hy-Vee stores in Cedar Rapids and Marion. The Coop has plans to expand its wholesale enterprise to other local businesses.
AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF IOWA Project: Ensuring Access to African American History The African American Museum of Iowa realized educational outreach was critically important to their sustainability and they needed to enhance their education offerings. They had spent several years building extensive partnerships in Cedar Rapids and across the state. Because of those efforts, last year the Museum’s Education Department was at capacity and quickly reaching a point of needing to turn away interested groups. The Museum proactively applied to the Community Foundation for a grant to assist with strategies to ensure access to educational programming, including hiring an Education Assistant. The result is an increase in educational outreach programming and partnerships, and the ability to meet the demand for education tours and workshop requests. COMMUNITY