Yavapai Food Council’s 4th Annual Healthy Food Grant will provide funding for emergency food providers to include additional fresh foods from local farmers in food boxes for the hungry.
Cottonwood AZ (May 15, 2014) – In 2013, nearly 31,700 persons in Yavapai County were living in poverty, according to the census poverty counts by zip code. According to the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy (www.iatp.org) food justice is the right of communities everywhere to product, process, distribute, access, and eat good food regardless of race, class, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, ability, religion, or community.
Yavapai Food Council programs are focused on increasing the quality, quantity and dependability of the food to food banks and emergency food providers throughout Yavapai County. It is the fundamental right for each human being to have the nutritional foods needed to sustain a healthy lifestyle.
In 2009, Yavapai Food Council (then Verde Food Council) established the annual Healthy Food Grant with the goal of encouraging food banks to purchase fresh vegetables, fruits and proteins from local farmers to supplement the shelf stable commodities provided to their clients. Since the inception of this grant, Yavapai Food Council has provided nearly $30,000 of funding to the selected grant applicants.
Recipients for Yavapai Food Council’s 2014 Healthy Food Grant include:
- Adventist Community Services Food Bank (Camp Verde, AZ) serving over 500 families living in poverty weekly
- Bagdad Food Program (Bagdad, AZ) – Rural community serving between 150 and 200 families living in poverty
- Beaver Creek Food Program (Lake Montezuma/Beaver Creek, AZ) – serving 150 to 200 families living in poverty each month
- Sedona Monday Night Supper by St. Andrews (Sedona, AZ) – providing hot meals for 75 to 150 hungry in Sedona weekly.
“The foundation of Yavapai Food Council is to provide healthy food to the hungry while promoting and securing a sustainable, local food system. By connecting our emergency food providers with farmers and providing funds to purchase local foods, over the last four years we have witnessed farmers offering 50% off to the recipients, allowing twice the fresh produce they could purchase elsewhere. In addition, our hungry neighbors are afforded the fundamental right to food justice with fresh, nutritious produce and protein in their food bank boxes.” — Amy Aossey, Executive Director of Yavapai Food Council.
Each grant recipient in 2014 will receive $2250 from Yavapai Food Council to purchase fresh, local produce and protein. Recipients report purchasing whole, processed sides of beef, shares for late summer and fall produce harvests and summer crops such as whole ear corn, tomatoes, squash and greens. The 2014 application process was announced in February and the final four recipients were selected and notified in April. This year’s grant purchasing period will continue through the end of June, 2014.
Yavapai Food Council is 501c3 non-profit agency that focuses efforts on sustainable food solutions, hunger elimination, community education and advocacy in Yavapai County.
Please contact Amy Aossey at Yavapai Food Council for more information on programs, volunteer opportunities, council meetings and educational opportunities.
Contributions for the Healthy Food Grant or General Yavapai Food Council Tax Credit Donations are accepted at: www.YavapaiFoodCouncil.org
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