In May 2026, the Keuka and Seneca Watersheds Chapter of the Sustainable Finger Lakes Neighborhood Mini-Grant Program awarded $2,821 in five grants to locally-run initiatives connecting community voices, sharing resources, and reducing waste in rural villages in Yates and Seneca Counties.
Dundee Central School is launching a school-based pantry of essential supplies, food, and clothing available to all students, aiming to increase access and reduce the stigma of getting needs met, and has received a mini-grant to kickstart the pantry’s supplies of socks, underwear, and hygiene supplies.
Finger Lakes Justice Partnership, a community group devoted to social justice networking, is holding second series of monthly People’s Parliament Community Potlucks at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Penn Yan, bringing neighbors together for discussion of issues ranging from local to international and building community resilience. FLXJP received a mini-grant to buy food for eight of these potluck sessions and rent Penn Yan Community Garden beds to grow more food for them.
Interlaken Grange 160, a local chapter of the National Grange rural advocacy organization, runs a Pill Bottle Collection Program collecting used plastic pill bottles at drop-off sites in Interlaken and surrounding areas, then shipping them to an Ohio organization which sends them to foreign aid workers overseas. Currently transitioning between sources of long-term funding, they received a mini-grant covering postage and packaging to continue the program for 3-4 months.
Lodi Whittier Library is addressing a long-term vulnerability to water shortages in Lodi, a community which currently depends entirely on wells for water. Supported in part by a mini-grant, they installed a rooftop rain barrel system to water the library gardens and hosted a public workshop on preparing barrels for home use.
The Living Well Mission in Penn Yan supports the Yates County community with many resource-sharing programs and projects, including a “Needs N’ Things Pantry” of personal hygiene products and cleaning supplies. Seeking to provide more lasting support while reducing local waste output, the organization received a mini-grant to experimentally replace some of this pantry’s conventionally packaged and disposable products with durable or environmentally friendly counterparts — cloth dish towels, refillable spray bottles of a vinegar-based cleaner, and bars of soap, shampoo, and dishwasher detergent – and gather insights on locals’ willingness to try these alternative products.
Since 2008, the Neighborhood Mini-Grant program has awarded over $100,000 in over 250 grants to initiatives building local resilience, equity, and environmental stewardship. Planning is underway for a chapter serving Chemung, Steuben, and Tioga counties. The program is sponsored by the Park Foundation, Craig Riecke, Applied Energy Services (AES), Tompkins Charitable Gift Fund, and local donors.
