Whole Cities Community First Grant: Team Member Engagement in Action
The annual Whole Cities Community First Grant Program supports nonprofits focused on long-term fresh, healthy food access and nutrition education that are engaged with Whole Foods Market Team Members (employees) in the U.S. and Canada. This includes community gardens, mobile markets, healthy cooking classes and more.
Since launching the grant program in 2016, Team Members have helped us award 477 grants in 161 cities, investing over $3.4M. Over 285 Team Members from 153 Whole Foods Market stores and all Store Support offices have participated!
During each grant year, Team Members nominate community partner organizations they currently engage with (or would like to start!) and support their partners throughout the grant year by volunteering to meet the needs and goals of the organization.
Haley Benes, a store trainer and Is Gallegos, a Whole Body Team Member at the Laurelhurst Whole Foods Market store in Portland, OR, have both been Team Members for 12 years. They are excited to begin working with their community partner Zenger Farm, a first-time Community First Grant grantee and former Whole Kids Garden Grant recipient. Read on to learn more about the working urban farm and see the Community First Grant works in action with a recent volunteer opportunity.
Meet Zenger Farm
Zenger Farm believes that communities thrive when people have a direct connection to their food and where it grows. Located on a 24-acre combined farm and wetland in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood of Outer East Portland, the working urban farm models, promotes, and educates about sustainable food systems, environmental stewardship, community development, and increases access to fresh, healthy food. Working alongside their community, they bring diverse groups together to access nourishing food, connect with resources, and participate in food and farming education while growing together.
Zenger Farm works to educate kids and families to address health disparities helping to change their local and regional food systems by supporting programs including:
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program is a subscription for a box of fresh, seasonal, delicious vegetables with pick up at the farm, offered with a unique sliding scale model.
CSA Partnerships for Health is a broad coalition of farms, community organizations, and health care providers working to bridge the food system and health system. The program turns community health centers into vibrant neighborhood spaces that distribute food from local farms.
Building Thriving Relationships in the Portland Community
To further support Zenger Farm’s mission and work, Haley and Is recently volunteered at the farm to kickoff their 2024 Community First Grant partnership. Haley and Is toured the farm and helped process an array of dry herbs from rosemary to thyme. The herbs are originally foraged from their organic gardens, hung inside to dry and then processed and refined into jars to be used as future ingredients for their community classes, volunteer tea and an array of other activities and events that they coordinate.
“It felt so good to be on the farm and in the farmhouse and to marinate in the energy of the place, the love that is put into these wetlands and the excitement of the young classes of kids running all around us. Is and I are excited to continue a relationship with Zenger Farm over the next 9 months and hopefully get the opportunity to introduce more Team Members to this special place.
Expanding fresh food access is so important to me and my fellow Team Members, and it’s important for us to fulfill a mission that is not only in line with our personal values but the values of the company. Making sure that these Community First Grant nonprofits are supported helps to keep Whole Foods Market fulfilling in their Core Values and mission.””
The Whole Cities Community First Grant is rooted in supporting home-grown solutions that help improve fresh, healthy food access. We’re so grateful for the partnerships built between Team Members and partners that make the Community First Grant such a success.