The We Sow We Grow Project addressed the pressing need for local, healthy fresh produce and community connection in West Pullman, a neighborhood marked by a 50% household food insecurity risk and a staggering 53% adult obesity rate.
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Friends of the Chicago River's grantee project aims to enhance the ecological health of the Little Calumet River and North Shore Channel through native plant installations during their Paddle and Plants events, addressing the lack of native vegetation in these areas. This initiative supports local ecosystems, mitigates flooding impacts, and promotes community engagement in environmental stewardship, with funding from the Schwemm Family Foundation facilitating plant purchases and essential supplies.
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Focused on enhancing resilient ecosystems along the central coast of California, the Wild Farmlands Foundation is dedicated to the regeneration of the landscape, while at the same time, supporting the area’s current and next generation of farmers and ranchers.
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Wolf Creek, located in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, has been a working alliance for over 20 years with the dual goals of preserving and protecting the local watershed while increasing public access to the creek and adjacent hillsides. As part of this effort, and with help from a SFF grant, Wolf Creek recently created a series of walking and biking tours within the watershed.
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Lost Sierra, working in remote Plumas County California, is dedicated to the reduction of food insecurity by providing training and education related to ecological farming. With help from a SFF grant, Lost Sierra has been able to add a much-needed outdoor classroom to their 2-acre interactive garden.
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White Buffalo (WB), located near Santa Barbara California, is committed to land stewardship practices that support biodiversity, water and soil resources, and human health. WB has recently partnered with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in the planning and implementation of a series of trainings focused on the building of resilient gardens. With the help of a SFF grant, these gardens are today being managed by members of the Ynez Band to grow a variety of food, fiber, and medicinal and ceremonial plants.
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The Rare Plants Inventory - RPI - is a database of information regarding all rare and endangered plants in California. To assist planners, consultants and resource managers, the SFF funded an effort to include all existing threat data for each species in the RPI. The app to use the RPI is free and available to everyone, allowing all users to have access to common information regarding current threats to native plant species and populations. CNPS Inventory of Rare Plants | California Native Plant Society.
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To assist Project Coyote in their work protecting wild carnivores, the SFF helped fund the production of two short films.
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Occidental Arts and Ecology is a non-profit organization working to develop sustainable and inclusive landuse practices. The SFF supported the OAEC in efforts to create and enhance wildlife habitat through invasive plant removal and habitat enhancements.
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Building Healthy Families, a family support organization serving Eastern Oregon, spearheaded an effort to construct a bicycle park features rollers, tunnels, pump tracks, rock gardens and a wide number of areas for kids to ride bikes, scooters, skateboards and rollerblades. Funds provided by the Schwemm Family Foundation were used for the purchase of several features in the playground, including bike teeter totters and a snake tunnel, which help to make the park a unique green space for the children of Wallowa County to enjoy.
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The Farm to School program partners with local schools in the greater Los Angeles area to build farm labs and outdoor learning gardens for students to have access to project-based outdoor learning opportunities. Funds provided by the Schwemm Family Foundation went to refurbish the culinary learning garden at Arroyo High School, supporting the AHS students taking part in this program to learn to grow their own organic food, and to cultivate and experience the setting of urban green spaces at their school.
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Supper Club, a part of the larger Lift Urban Portland Adopt a Building program, provides on-site food security services in low-income apartment buildings in Northwest and Downtown Portland, Oregon. The Schwemm Family Foundation partnered with Lift Urban Portland to help fund the Supper Club program in two high need, low-income buildings in the City of Portland, providing a healthy eating, multi-part workshop series focused on nutrition education, cooking skills, and healthy meal preparation.
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The Foundation’s funding helped the Museum of Ventura County research, create and disseminate a scholarly journal, titled Bootleggers, Rumrunners, and Blind-Piggers: Prohibition in Ventura County. The Journal tells the story of the impact of Prohibition on Ventura County residents. The journal complemented the Museum’s major history exhibit All That Glitters is not Gold, which grew out of the same historical research into the county’s history during the 1920’s.
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The Josephy Center teamed with the Wallowa History Center and Nez Perce elders from three reservations, to document and explore the places and occasions of first meetings of white settlers and the Nez Perce Indians—often in the Oregon Wallowa Country. Local historians and tribal elders, met to examine the “Confluence” of two rivers where Whites and Indians met first met.
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The High Desert Museum and Oregon Black Pioneers successfully collaborated to develop fourth grade classroom resources that center Black experiences on the Oregon Trail and Black exclusion in Oregon.
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Formed in rural Southern Oregon in 1992, the APWC has evolved to become a national model for agency-community collaboration and innovation. One of their newest collaborative projects, Grow Youth, combines riparian restoration with monitoring education at a popular county park. In 2021, funds from the SFF were used to support this program in their efforts to enhance a section of the Applegate River for fish, beaver, and other wildlife while involving students in monitoring the removal of a variety of invasive species and the growth and survival of numerous native plants.
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This organization makes a unique urban environment - the Chicago river - more accessible and scenic for the benefit of those living or visiting downtown Chicago. Through a sustained, multi-year series of partnerships with private and public entities, Urban Rivers creates programming and experiences to help people of all ages experience something familiar in a new way. The Schwemm Family Foundation was proud to work with Urban Rivers to support their mission through funding field trips and other visits near and on the river.
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The Minthorn Springs Preserve is a wetland in urban Milwaukie, Oregon home to birds, mammals, snakes, salamanders, butterflies and dragonflies. The Schwemm Family Foundation partnered with the Wetlands Conservancy to help fund the Conservancy’s work to reduce non-native species and improve the natural spaces in the 6.52 acre wetlands for use by the public as well as a habitat for the native flora and fauna thriving there.
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