INDIANAPOLIS — The Office of Sustainability recently awarded a new round of SustainIndy Community Grants. This year, the awards totaled more than $48,000 in funding to support 6 community projects that promote social and cultural vibrancy, ensure environmental integrity, and further economic development throughout Indianapolis.
The SustainIndy Community Grants program was created in 2014, the result of a public-private partnership between the Office of Sustainability and the McKinney Family Foundation. The grants of up to $10,000 are designed to allow residents the opportunity to create change in the community regardless of financial circumstance.
The 2017 grant recipients include:
• SHARE Student Group of Castleton United Methodist Church, which provides underserved students access to safe, enriching experiences when school is not in session.
• Growing Places, Inc., which will support the continuation and expansion of Family Cooking and Nutrition Classes. In each class, families receive fresh vegetables grown at the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center, are taught how to cook, store, and enjoy fresh produce, and further receive nutrition lessons from a registered dietician.
• Indianapolis K-12 Food Rescue, which plans to use the grant funding to expand food rescue programs to additional schools in Indianapolis, diverting food from landfills and instead delivering it to local caring agencies. In addition to providing nutrition to food insecure families and individuals, the food rescue programs feature a student-led entrepreneurship component, developing youth leadership skills in the community.
• Kephrw Institute, for the launch of an eSTEAM (entrepreneurship, science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) Club, designed to encourage young women of color to engage in STEM fields. The afterschool program will be open to 20 inner-city girls ages 10-14, exposing them to such hands-on activities as coding, videography, 3D printing, and investigation.
• Teacher’s Treasures, which will use the grant to maintain and expand their “Time from the Heart” workshop in the Indiana Women’s Prison. The workshop allows offenders to give back to the community, transforming discarded and donated materials into custom classroom supplies while learning social and employment skills. The supplies are then provided to teachers who serve at-risk Indianapolis through Teacher’s Treasures free store.
• Veterans Industry and Arts, to support the launch of The Cool Bus, a veteran-operated business aimed at providing fresh, local groceries in the city’s food deserts. The business will be run through a repurposed school bus, and will produce sourced from a veteran-managed garden plot. The City’s Veterans Service Office is working closely with Veterans Industry and Arts, providing technical guidance and support for the launch.