USA - IOWA: Tapestry Farms Receives $300k Grant From The QC Community Foundation
Tapestry Farms volunteers growing hydroponic greens. Tapestry Farms' website
The Quad Cities Community Foundation is awarding Tapestry Farms a $300,000 Transformation Grant to expand their services over the next three years.
QC Community Foundation Vice President of Grantmaking and Community Initiatives Kelly Thompson says the organization is celebrating ten years of offering Transformation Grants. Unlike other grant opportunities at the foundation, this process is decided by a board committee that looks for areas of community need instead of blanket competitive applications.
"[W]e found was this intersection of welcoming refugees, helping them become long-term residents of the Quad Cities, as well as community health and nutrition," Thompson said in a phone interview with WVIK. "And Tapestry Farms welcomes refugees in part by engaging in urban farming. So they're making our Quad Cities community better, not only through helping people, but in making the land around us more sustainable, contributing to people's health and wellness by growing vegetables, all of those things."
Tapestry Farms founder and Executive Director Ann McGlynn says her organization is "humbled" to receive the grant. She says the grant will triple the amount of food grown and double the number of families served.
"Last year, we grew about 11,000 pounds of food, and we hope to increase that to between 25 and 30,000 pounds of food," McGlynn said in a phone interview with WVIK. "We're going to be working to encourage individuals to grow food in their own backyards for their local pantries and help them make those connections to their local pantry. And then we're going to be expanding our culturally specific food pantry here in our offices in Davenport."
Since starting the non-profit in 2017, McGlynn says she is eating more Fufu, a very starchy dough-like food that originated in Ghana and other countries of West Africa, as well as different preparations for fish.
Tapestry Farms grows a lot of African Garden Egg eggplant or Intoryi, and McGlynn says the grant will enable more varieties.
Wikimedia Commons
Garden egg is a type of eggplant that is used as a food crop in several countries in Africa.
"Next year, we're going to be actually adding to the variety of eggplant that we grow to include a couple of varieties from different countries as well. We also have on our plots that just grows is a leafy green called Langa Langa or Muchicha that is really popular in East and Central Africa," McGlynn said.
Each year, the organization will receive $100,000 through 2027. McGlynn says the grant will expand their operations into a larger space, retain a full-time staff and add more planned programming. The programming includes English language classes, legal navigation services, and courses to encourage backyard gardens.
Thompson says the 60-year foundation offering grants is only made possible by donors who contribute to their endowments.
"In this case, the Transformation Grants are possible because of the hundreds of people who have given over the decades to our Community Impact Fund, which is here every year for the greatest needs, priorities, and opportunities that are happening in the Quad Cities. And we are very lucky to be able to deploy those resources from the Community Impact Fund," Thompson said.
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Brady is a 2021 Augustana College graduate majoring in Multimedia Journalism-Mass Communication and Political Science. Over the last eight years, he has reported in central Illinois at various media outlets, including The Peoria Journal Star, WCBU Peoria Public Radio, Advanced Media Partners, and WGLT Bloomington-Normal's Public Media.