Neighborhood Mini-Grant Program Chapter – Cayuga and Owasco Watersheds

Spring 2026

Cayuga Climate Action: $450 for marketing a Community Styrofoam Drop-off event in Cayuga County and U-Haul rental to transport collected white polystyrene foam to a specialized recycling facility.

Cayuga Meadows Community Gardeners: $510 for a retractable hose reel and raised bed to improve accessibility in the community garden at the Conifer Village at Cayuga Meadows senior apartment complex

Commonland Community Residents Association: $344 for a weed wrench to remove invasive plants in Commonland Community property woodland at volunteer events with local organizations.

Dryden Central School District: $375 for metal utensils replacing single-use plastic utensils in the Dryden Elementary School cafeteria.

Family Reading Partnership: $250 for used children’s books supplementing book donations to the Bright Red Bookshelf program

Newfield Public Library: $300 for materials used at a Textile Care & Repair workshop series.

Ris Pareti: $300 in support of creating a “Giving Grove” nursery growing air-pruned fruit trees, shrubs, and perennials for free community distribution.

The Good Neighbor Grocery: $450 to equip this Groton grocery store with dispensers for bulk sale of liquid cleaning and cooking supplies.

Village at Ithaca: $500 for a water tote and tool shed in a new urban memorial garden created and used by Ithaca youth.

Fall 2025

Claire Mullen: $75 for first-aid supplies to distribute at Loaves and Fishes of Tompkins County.

Dryden Rail Trail Task Force: $350 for plants and materials to create a native “many-forest” beside a section of the Dryden Rail Trail in Etna.

Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming: $600 for plants and signage to create an agroforestry demonstration site at their Incubator Farm.

Ithaca Community Gardens: $450 for hardware and materials to create four raised garden beds for gardeners with impaired abilities to bend or kneel.

Lansing Loves to Read: $250 for used bookshelves to be refurbished, stocked with donated books, and distributed to low-income households in Lansing.

TEEN Day Ithaca: $400 to start a mini-grant project supporting projects by local youth.

WRFI Community Radio: $540 to produce and air a series of radio announcements about regional sustainability organizations, initiatives, and resources,

Spring 2025

Fall 2024

Caroline Elementary School: $500 to renovate the school vegetable garden.

Claire Dehm: $700 to create a Bike Seat Library housed in Ithaca by Bike Walk Tompkins, where the public can borrow bicycle seats and test them for comfort before choosing which to purchase elsewhere.

Claudia Carillo: $150 for the transportation and data storage costs of installing and using a network of air pollution sensors monitoring PM10 particulate matter on both sides of Cayuga Lake, to highlight pollution sources and inform city planning.

Danby Food and Drink: $750 for shade sails and posts to make the café/grocery store more hospitable as a community gathering space.

Groton Public Library: $750 toward the costs of establishing an on-site public bicycle repair station.

Zoë Van Nostrand: $177 for materials to use in running four Beginner Textile Repair & Care workshops in rural Tompkins County.

Spring 2024

Cayuga Meadows Community Garden: $183.58 for a “senior safe” wheelbarrow and weeder to use in the resident-run community garden at the Conifer Village at Cayuga Meadows senior apartment complex.

Open Doors English: $300 for a library cart to supplement adult English as a Second Language classes with a lending library of books.

Cornell on Fire: $300 for five months of website domain fees.

Newfield Writes: $300 for food at the “zero-waste” community reception for the 2024 Newfield Poetry Celebration youth poetry contest.

Fall 2023

BJM Families Together: $500 for a garden compost bin and a Little Free Library at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School.

Dryden Middle School/High School Sustainability Club: $750 for reusable metal utensils to replace disposable plastic utensils in the Dryden Middle School and Dryden High School cafeterias.

Lehman Alternative Community School: $745 to create mobile bicycle repair stations for bicycle repair education workshops in West Hill communities.

Spring 2023

Ash Ferlito and Brandon Hoak: $550 to buy native plant additions to the Marshy Garden habitat restoration project and educational venue at the Soil Factory south of Ithaca.

Friends of the Lansing Center Trail: $550 for plant identification signage for the native plant garden at the entrance to the Lansing Center Trail.

Groton Community Cupboard: $750 toward the costs of relocating and expanding the Groton food pantry.

Kate McKee: $700 for bike racks to be installed at four businesses throughout the Village of Dryden.

Fall 2022

Brooktondale Community Center: $540 for materials to build a collection bin for returnable bottles, replacing a rotten collection bin.

Jean’s Soul Food Spot: $750 toward the cost of a mobile food concession trailer to be run as a restaurant by a BIPOC entrepreneur selling affordable food and aiming for local sourcing.

Mutual Aid Tompkins: $500 for materials to build a community food sharing cabinet designed to be accessible by people with impaired mobility.

Spring 2022

Black Diamond Trail Enthusiasts Network: $500 toward a one-year rental of a porta-potty on the Black Diamond Trail from Cass Park to Taughannock Falls State Park.

Communitas:  $450 for nature exploration tools, including magnifiers and monoculars, to be used long-term in youth education programs in Tompkins County.

Ben Komor: $185 for three months of community-building “Games ‘n Goods” game nights in urban Ithaca for people with mental health issues.

Jack Wright: $300 for materials to create garden beds hosted by Fort Baptist Farm, growing produce for donation to local food distribution groups.

Liliana Coelho: $190 for dyes and laundry fees involved in hosting a community dye bath in Ithaca, where people bring garments to be re-dyed for prolonged desirability.

Matt Dallos:  $550 to create a naturalistic garden on a median of N. Meadow Street in Ithaca, for low-maintenance urban beautification and insect habitat.

Fall 2021

Finger Lakes Toy Library: $567 for advertising the toy library’s new location in the Ithaca Mall.

Mackenzie Torelli: $500 for materials to build five Little Free Libraries in Northeast Ithaca, in collaboration with Northeast Elementary School students and parents.

Open Doors English: $165 for Wi-Fi hotspot rentals for low-income students in remote adult English as a Second Language classes.

Zero Waste Ithaca: $625.86 for Bring-Your-Own-Container stickers and other partial costs of a campaign encouraging restaurants and food-serving stores to accept Bring-Your-Own-Containers, offer single-use utensils by request only, and/or develop returnable container systems.

Spring 2021

Adrianna Hirtler: $400 for materials to create an interactive observation board beside Six Mile Creek in Titus Triangle Park, to be used by park visitors to record observations of the creek and its wildlife, local cultural stories, and other messages that build environmental awareness and community connections.

Catholic Charities of Tompkins Tioga: $250 for tools and materials to start a permanent program of instruction in machine sewing at A Place to Stay, their transitional supportive residence for homeless and recovering women in Ithaca.

Claire Dehm: $400 for all costs of three “Women at the Wheel” bicycle repair workshops at the Ithaca Farmers Market pavilion in summer 2021, open to women and non-binary residents of Tompkins County.

Downtown Ithaca Alliance: $750 toward the purchase of a self-serve bicycle repair station in downtown Ithaca, equipped with tools, an air pump, and a stand.

Fort Baptist Farm: $400 for materials to create flower beds in a new onsite community garden of herbs, flowers, and fruit trees for public harvesting and use.

Ithaca Catholic Worker: $500 for a shed to house a mutual aid food sharing cabinet, with coolers for perishable food, at the Peter De Mott Catholic Worker House in Southside.

Ithaca Monthly Meeting Earthcare Committee: $250 for partial costs of creating a raised bed garden to grow vegetables and herbs for public harvesting and it use at the Meeting House in Northside.

Kristen Streahle: $500 to create communal food-producing vertical gardens on the porches of a multi-household rental residence in downtown Ithaca.

Luna Fiber Studio: $400 for materials to be used at a 2021 indigo seed-to-fiber workshop with the Youth Farm Project’s summer program participants, featuring an expanded focus on the textile industry’s post-production impacts.

Fall 2020

Ellis Hollow Nursery School: $750 for trail renovation at the Ellis Hollow Community Center, including plant ID tags and a plant ID station.

Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming: $700 toward development of rainwater catchment systems at Groundswell Center’s Incubator Farm, for irrigation and public education.

Khuba International: $750 for supplies and educational materials for the Quarter Acre for the People urban farming education project.

Parents2Polls Tompkins: $500 for publicity for a volunteer-driven program during the November 2020 election, assisting parents and others in line during early voting and providing free childcare at the Southside Community Center on Election Day.

The Village at Ithaca: $600 toward local construction of a bike rack housing a new fleet of bicycles for youth employees delivering programs and mutual aid in the City of Ithaca.

Spring 2020

Trees Up Tompkins: $350 for native trees, planting materials, and event publicity for a community tree planting at Lighthouse Point.

Luna Fiber Studio: $650 for materials to be used in an indigo seed-to-fiber workshop with the Youth Farm Project’s summer program participants.

Fall 2019

Jonathyn Thornton: $200 for partial costs of a 2019 Eagle Scout project renovating an overgrown public trail through the woods between the Varna Community Center and the Hillside Acres Mobile Home Park.

Open Doors English: $270 for brochures and a reusable display for community outreach, promoting a new program which offers English as a Second Language classes in downtown Ithaca for adults, building local economic equity and including education on environmental sustainability.

Spring 2019

Durland Alternatives Library: $303 for online hosting costs and a domain name for a new “Alternatives in Action” podcast featuring the stories and endeavors of people in the Finger Lakes region striving toward sustainability in food systems, energy issues, or socioeconomic justice, focusing on related actions that a listener can take.

Sunrise Movement Ithaca: $320 for promotional materials, uniforms, and travel costs for the newly-formed local “hub” of the Sunrise Movement, at national movement of youth supporting and calling for action on social and climate justice issues in their communities and at all levels of government.

Village at Ithaca: $400 for supplies, promotional materials, and contracted instructor fees for three courses in a free five-course Introduction to Gardening series for the residents of West Village Apartments, at the apartment complex’s Dig’nity Garden, growing vegetables for residents to eat.

Ithaca Murals: $375 for materials and artist stipends for the Justice Walls 2019 multi-mural project.

Fall 2018

Floral Avenue Community Garden: $250 for promotional materials, plants, and fencing to be used at a Community Perennial Planting Workshop and plant giveaway.

Civic Ensemble: $350 for the first two Community Soup: Storytelling Toward the Beloved Community monthly story circles.

Spring 2018 

REACH Medical: $200 for soil and lumber to expand an edible raised-bed garden at a medical office specializing in opioid addiction treatment, providing food and building community for its patients and the public.

Recycle Ithaca’s Bicycles: $400 locks and lights to be provided to some of the bicycle-repair program participants who receive the bicycles they repair.

Wonderful Wheelchairs: $500 for a folding motorized scooter that community members may try out before deciding whether to purchase one of their own.

Shira Evergreen: $500 for a hard drive to use in making a short documentary film on the proliferation of local murals and the role of public art in engaging community members around social justice issues.

Northside United: $260 for printing two issues of a quarterly neighborhood newsletter to build community and collaboratively address local issues.

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County: $100 for slow cookers for distribution to participants in the Dryden Family Meal Connection program which provides food, support, and education to food-insecure Dryden families.

Aja Haedicke: $500 for paint and primer to create a mural on New Roots Charter School, linking sustainability and social justice.

Fall 2017

Paleontological Research Institute: $270 to print The Teacher-Friendly Guide™ to Climate Change for all public high school science teachers in Tompkins County.

Ithaca Murals: $500 for ladders, step stools, and brushes for a Lending Library for artists and community members creating murals that reflect the demographics, values, and stories of Ithaca’s residents.

Climate Change Mural: $220 for primer and materials to begin a large mural in the City of Ithaca, portraying steps that individuals and communities can take to address and adapt to climate change.

Family Reading Partnership: $280 for weather-resistant bins for curbside recycling pickup, to eliminate emissions from hauling large amounts of cardboard and other recyclables to the county waste center in Ithaca.

Spring 2017

Varna Community Association: $453 for low-flush toilets and accompanying educational signs for the Varna Community Center.

OAR Housing, LLC: $360 for materials and tools to create a raised-bed vegetable, herb, and flower garden and fruit tree grove at Endeavor House, a new Ithaca home for men transitioning out of incarceration.

Finger Lakes Toy Library: $750 for equipment to become established as a lending collection of environmentally-friendly toys, with Ithaca headquarters and a traveling mobile station, to reduce the buying and discarding of toys while helping families save money.

Groton Public Library: $720 for free monthly meals bringing people in the community together to identify and address local issues around accessing and producing healthy food.

Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming: $300 for space rental in which to host part of a May 2017  “Farm to Plate” conference in Ithaca, focused on addressing issues of unequal access to food and farming as part of creating a more diverse and sustainable regional food system.

Coddington Road Community Center: $150 for activity supplies at an April 2017 Earth Day celebration.

Fall 2016

Spencer Road Neighborhood Association: $200 for supplies and advertising of cleanups along Spencer Road in May and October 2017.

Multicultural Resource Center: $500 for paint and other supplies for creation of a “Portals to Peace” mural celebrating Muslim culture, on the Green Street parking garage in Ithaca.

Dish Truck: $200 for durable dishware, expanding the organization’s capacity. Dish Truck lends and washes reusable dishware at local events to reduce the use of disposables, including the biodegradable products no longer accepted at local composting facilities.

Dryden Community Garden: $100 for a planned community meal and discussion as an outreach venue for recruiting new garden leadership.

Cornell Cooperative Extension: $150 for fencing to keep herbivores out of the Enfield Elementary School garden, enabling CCE’s Enfield Youth Program to provide after-school educational programs on growing food crops.

Quinn Energy LLC: $500 for three free SOUTH SUP Demand Response Community Meals at the Southside Community Center on especially cold days in the upcoming winter. This pilot project aims to reduce the neighborhood’s energy usage during such times of peak demand — which Quinn would quantitatively test and report — while bringing people together and providing food.

Luna Fiber Studio: $400 for weaving equipment to be used in courses and workshops in textile weaving and dying with locally-produced dyes. A new Trumansburg business, the studio devotes particular outreach to women of color, and seeks to provide free or reduced-price offerings for low-income learners.

Spring 2016

Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute: $530 for marketing and advertising the Third Annual Finger Lakes Permaculture Tour and Conference in August, which will feature a tour of 16 local and regional farms and gardens, a kickoff film screening and celebration in downtown Ithaca, and a conference in Montour Falls.

Cornell University Engineering Leadership Program: $300 toward materials for a new project partnering with Ithaca High School for a new project seeking to make the high school’s composting system effective through educational outreach and collaboratively building a solar-powered compost tumbler for onsite use.

Laura Bell: $150 to create and distribute an infographic on the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act protecting food donors from liability. In cooperation with Friendship Donations Network and the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, the infographic will be distributed in print and online to businesses which may become food donors, benefiting donation systems across the region:

Jane Marie and Adam Law: $300 for plants and signage at a pollinator garden newly created in their Northeast Ithaca neighborhood, for public education and community building.

Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library: $450 for bike racks at its Esty Street headquarters, for use by volunteers, donors, and book sale customers:

Rootwork Herbals: $550 toward scholarships for a six-month course on the use of local herbs for food and medicine. Scholarships make the course more accessible to people of color and people from low-income households.

Lea Elleseff: $500 for tents, tables, chairs, and a produce scale at a new “Pop-Up” farmers’ market and community children’s garden in the Village of Freeville, by the former firehouse where she now lives. The market would host local farmers, gardeners, and other vendors, and be open to commercial and non-commercial entities, with no required fee in advance.

Fall 2015

SewGreen: $600 to purchase six used sewing machines for an after-school sewing program at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, teaching students to sew with assistance from teen and adult volunteers.

¡BiciCocina! Bicycle Food Cart: $500 to help purchase an electric cargo bike to reduce car use, expand the reach of mobile vendor of South American food, and promote bicycle use to customers and community.

Black Locust Initiative: $200 to fund student production of a “graphic novel” gardening guide to share with other students based on their experiences in the school garden at Trumansburg Middle School.

Finger Lakes Land Trust: $230 for signage along a Phenology Trail at the Roy H. Park Preserve, to educate visitors about observing and recording the dates of life stages of local plants as our climate changes.

Spring 2015

Tompkins County Workers’ Center: $500 for posters, flyers, and outreach materials to support a campaign to make the county minimum wage a living wage.

Mama’s Comfort Camp: $500 for outreach materials to expand the network of local mutual support among over 1000 mothers of all ages at all stages.

Project Growing Hope: $500 to increase community garden accessibility by providing a porta-john for summer 2015 in preparation for getting permission from the City to install a composting toilet.

Rescue Mission Homeless Shelter Sustainability Initiative: $360 for a 10-unit bike rack and rain barrel to enhance the beautification project of the outdoor gathering space behind the shelter.

Friendship Donations Network Neighborhood Food Hubs: $300 to purchase yard signs and print posters to promote and collect garden surplus for distribution to local food pantries. 

Youth Farm Project: $500 to create a mobile farm stand selling produce throughout the Ithaca area.

Nicholas Desystemizer: $400 for materials for a class on bicycle repair and maintenance in Ithaca.

Healthy Food For All (Cornell Cooperative Extension): $400 for cooking classes.

Tompkins Time Traders: $150 for materials promoting a local “time banking’ exchange program.

New Roots Charter School: $250 for seeds and gardening materials for the spring Farm to School program.

Fall 2014

West Village Gone Green Community Garden: $65 for potting soil and fencing.

Hot Potato Press: $600 for training citizen journalists to write for a local-food-systems information and networking website, to be launched in 2015.

Eco-Defense Radio: $700 to purchase equipment for producing radio documentaries on local environmental issues.

Black Locust Initiative: $135 to start an edible gardening program for pre-K students in Trumansburg.

Dryden Community Gardens: $420 to replace broken gates to keep wildlife out of the garden.

White Hawk Ecovillage: $200 to update and distribute outreach materials to attract new residents.

BJM Afterschool Enrichment, Inc./Garden Club: $300 to purchase supplies for a garden club learning to grow and prepare produce from the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School garden.

Ellis Hollow Apartments: $200 for a community harvest dinner of local food in October 2014. 

Spring 2014

David Means: $160.00 to purchase and install a bike rack in Trumansburg near local businesses.

Rainbow Healing Dance Center: $500 for supplies, printing, and transportation for a project teaching youth about uses of local plants.

Caroline Parent-Teacher Association: $225 to create natural-history “discovery kits” for the Caroline Wilderness Campus.

Groton Public Library: $500 to create a community garden, for public education and food production.

Alexandria Tate: $225 to purchase supplies and equipment for nutrition/food prep demonstrations.

No Mas Lagrimas: $225 to cover some expenses of a Latinos Multicultural Festival.

Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute: $300 to advertise the first annual FLPCI site tours of area permaculture gardens.

Conifer Gardens: $200 to purchase supplies for a sustainable garden to benefit neighbors.

Rescue Mission: $500 to purchase a recycled metal bike rack for residents transitioning out of homelessness and their guests.

Tompkins Community Action: $500 to purchase tools, seedlings, seeds, and other supplies for gardeners in the TCAction network.

Ithaca Farmer’s Market: $500 for bike racks at the Steamboat Landing market pavilion.

Ithaca Monthly Meeting Earthcare Committee: $350 to purchase supplies for weekly bike repair stands at the Quaker meetinghouse in Northside.

Shawn Greenwood Working Group: $250 to support newsletter printing and Racial Justice Community Education events.

Earth Arts: $500 to help fund mentor training for a boys’ rite-of-passage program.

Woods Earth Living Classroom: $450 to provide area schools with a fresh-and-local healthy cooking guide.

International Youth Arts and Culture Fest: $250 to compensate performers and purchase supplies for educational activities at Stewart Park. 

Fall 2013

Art and Found: $180 for community creation and distribution of free handmade winter hats.

Ithaca Children’s Garden: $675 to purchase supplies and materials for the garden.

Bicycle Group: $375 to support active transportation programming.

Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes: $400 to purchase tools for the CRC Healing Garden.

Ithaca Alternative Gift Fair: $450 to produce advertisements and posters for the 2013 fair.

Sciencenter: $500 to create an exhibit on wind energy.

Erin Caruth and Jim Holahan: $317 to create and advertise a battery and recyclable plastic drop-off site.

Spring 2013

Way2Go: $650 to support Way2Go’s bike helmet giveaways and education program at events in Ithaca, Trumansburg, and Enfield.

Lansing Youth Services: $320 for a drip irrigation system for the Lansing Community Garden.

GreenStar Community Projects: $500 to support the Third Annual Food Justice Summit. 

Recycling Ithaca’s Bicycles: $500 to fund Geared for Change, a program to teach young women about bikes.

Ithaca Hours: $150 to create promotional materials and a website for Ithaca Hours.

Village Camp Transportation Program: $600 to provide a bus to transport campers to the Village Camp.

Friendship Donations Network: $750 to build a CoolBot to store and preserve rescued food before distribution.

New Roots Charter School: $400 to purchase tools for the New Roots Urban Organic Garden.

Women of the Ithaca Dawah Circle: $115 to rent space and buy materials for a Taste of Muslim Culture event.

Summer of Solutions Ithaca: $435 to support a youth-led summer anti-fracking and sustainability program.

SoLuna – Cultures Alive!: $220 to purchase supplies and compensate performers for the IYAC Fest.

Fall 2012

Danby Community Park Association: $475 to build a message center and kiosk at Dotson Park.

Woods Earth Living Classroom: $300 to cover infrastructure to build a garden providing food for local schools and education for youth groups.

Ithaca Health Alliance: $500 for forced-air hand dryers to eliminate paper towel waste.

GIAC Conservation Corps: $400 to help with costs of installing beds, compost bins, fences, seedlings, and design drawings for an outdoor classroom.

YOURS/OURS: $150 to support a greenbelt project, youth education, tree planting, and travel costs.

Rainbow Healing Dance Center: $175 for a Black History Month poetry and essay contest.

Healthcare Visual Storytelling Project: $750 to record stories of individual experiences with the healthcare system.

TeamUnity Project: $750 to plant fruits and vegetables and clean the shoreline at Stewart Park.

West Village Gone Green Community Garden: $150 to purchase a new hose and seeds for fall crops.

Community Science Institute: $450 to conduct baseline water quality testing at Pony Hollow Creek.

Spring 2012

Historic Ithaca, Inc.: $516 to beautify Significant Elements with fencing, plantings, and a bike rack.

Children’s Art Immersion Movement: $510 to support CAIM’s Music and Theatre Summer 2012 program.

Femtastic: $275 toward the cost of materials for Pumpkin Fest.

Finger Lakes Reuse: $300 for licensing fees to buy software for refurbished computers.

Loaves and Fishes: $500 for a vegetable and fruit garden.

Center for Environmental Sustainability: $350 to help put on Peace Week 2012 programming.

SewGreen: $375 to support on-site programming at the West Village Apartments.

Family and Children’s Service of Ithaca: $318 to purchase supplies for a garden and new container gardening project.

New Roots Charter School: $500 for a farm plot and gardening education.

Dewitt Middle School: $200 to create a sustainable garden.

Brooktondale Community Center: $250 to measure food produced for the Caroline Food Pantry.

Village at Ithaca: $500 to support the Family Advocacy Project for Ithaca City School District students.

Ithaca Freeskool: $300 to purchase supplies and equipment for two semesters of Freeskool and two social events

Tompkins County Public Library: $350 to provide painting supplies for an urban street art mural.

Small Scale Biochar Initiative: $290 to purchase a biochar kiln for production and education.

Fall 2011

Kitchen Theatre Company: $150 to purchase locally designed and constructed bike racks.

Ithaca Community Harvest: $500 to help the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School start a fresh fruit and vegetable snack program.

Wood’s Earth Living Classroom: $475 to support educational sustainable activities for youth.

Groton Public Library: $500 in support of an agricultural education program for Groton youth.

Opportunities, Alternatives, and Resources: $250 to help OAR conduct an 8-week workshop with women who have been incarcerated or have incarcerated partners.

Ithaca Biogas: $650 to support a two-day biogas workshop.

Caroline Food Pantry: $568 to fund a project encouraging locals to raise their own chickens.

Dorothy Cotton Institute: $600 to support the Building Bridges Workshop in Ithaca.

Spring 2011

YOURS: $250 to support after-school programming for high-risk, low-income youth in Dryden, including “fun Friday” sustainability activities.

Operation Watershed: $356 to create a potable rainwater collection and storage system for a community garden in Trumansburg.

Ithaca Children’s Garden: $300 to support a youth-run farm stand at the Tompkins County Department of Social Services.

Women Healing from Head to Toe: $200 to fund a support group for women to help younger women in the Ithaca community.

Dewitt Middle School: $300 to help support a sustainable garden for 7th graders to learn about plant biology, soil, and composting.

Cornell Cooperative Extension: $295 to support CCE classes on food preservation.

Healing Hearts: $200 for scholarships for participants in a Healing Hearts Women’s Retreat.

Beverly J. Martin Elementary School: $500 for tools and materials to create a vegetable garden built by BJM first graders.

La Marketa: $600 to support an indoor market downtown that provides immediate access to local and healthy foods to disenfranchised populations within Tompkins County, specifically, covering the initial costs of a space rental, health permit and marketing

Transportation Liaisons: $100 to facilitate families in finding transportation to events held within the Ithaca City School District to boost family involvement in activities and thus, reduce race and class as predictors of school success.

West Village Gone Green: $750 to purchase a deer fence, garden tools, soil and materials including the rental of a roto-tiller to start their community garden.

Lehman Alternative Community School: $100 for student attendance at Powershift 2011 in Washington, D.C.

Fall 2010

Dacha Project: $750 to purchase supplies to transition the Lister Generator from an energy source run off of diesel fuel to one the utilizes bio-diesel. The generator provides electrical power, heat and hot water to the Dacha homestead.

Danby Land Bank Cooperative: $250 to support the Raising and Butchering Broilers proposal to purchase materials to build a portable chicken house as part of a greater initiative to make it easier for people to grow their own meat.

Downtown Music for Uptown Youth: $600 to support the purchase of a Macintosh computer for the youth-run audio recording studio.

Parents Apart: $250 in funds for five scholarships to parents helping children cope with separation and divorce.

Sciencenter: $500 towards the purchase of a Seldon Water Tap Max and plumbing supplies to attach a nano-tech water filter exhibit to a drinking fountain, demonstrating to visitors through experience that “sustainable water, the filtered way” is a better alternative to bottled water.

West Village Community Build: $350 for the start of a sustainable community garden and compost.

Dryden Elementary School: $400 to purchase material and tools for the composting project.

Green Resource Hub: $400 for the purchase smart meters and exhibit materials for public education on energy consumption in home and business as part of the Watt Meter LendingProgram.

Ithaca Biodiesel Cooperative: $600 to support the Campaign to Increase Public Awareness of biodiesel with the purchase of advertising, publicity materials and office equipment.

Lore Productions: $600 to purchase production supplies and publicity materials for making “The Eco-Musical,” a locally based creation (writing, casting, filming) that raises community awareness towards global issues of sustainability, including local environmental concerns.

Newfield Central School District: $600 to support the Food Development Lab and Composing Project with the purchase of hydroponic growing kits and composting worms.

Silent City Distro: $500 for purchasing the rent and office supplies to support the Silent City Distro’s proposal of providing resources to activists and grassroots organizations in the Tompkins County area.

Spring 2010

Black Locust Initiative: $750 for supplies to convert a walk-in cooler to a root cellar for squash storage at Trumansburg Middle School.

Congo Square Market Council: $750 to support the Youth Farm Project in purchasing garden tools and lunch supplies for student workers to garden and harvest food that serves the BJM snack program and LACS lunch program.

Dryden Community Garden: $630 for fencing material to keep out browsing deer.

Caroline Food Pantry: $350 for fencing materials to enclose 50′ x 175′ community garden providing fresh local produce to 300 households served by the food pantry.

“Cayuga Lake Community Build,” a collaboration between the Preteen Green Camp of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) and the Cayuga Watershed Intermunicipal Organization (IO): $300 for six scholarships to teens from downtown Ithaca and Dryden, to receive the “Water Wizards” training through the Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom.

Dryden Solutions: $105 for printing and supplies to host monthly conversations at the Dryden Community Center Cafe on topics related to local sustainability.

Groton Student Vegetable Garden: $150 for fencing materials to enclose 30′ x 30′ organic garden managed by students in grades 6-12 which provides fresh produce for the school.

Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming: $300 for a scholarship to TC3’s summer course in sustainable farming and local food systems, for credit.

West Hill Community Garden at Linderman Creek: $250 for fruit trees.

Village Camp for Counselors-in-Training (Ithaca Community Recovery): $600 for two scholarships for youth-at-risk to receive counselor training and sustainability education at Camp Earth Connection.

Fall 2009

Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute: $400 for scholarships for downtown classes at Southside Community Center, focusing on sustainable garden design.

Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) Middle School garden: $500 for planting supplies.

Share Tompkins: $410 for creating an online directory for monthly community “Swap Meets” exchanging goods and services.

Whole Communities Project: $500 for purchase of garden tools and irrigation hoses for use by GIAC teens in downtown community gardens

Dacha Project: $500 for a non-electric compressed-air water pump for their educational garden.

Ithaca Freeskool: $500 to print brochures of free classes offered to the community, and to create a promotional video.

IthaCan: $200 for web site support and supplies to teach food preservation skills.

Shaleshock Citizen Action Alliance: $370 to print newsletters that raise awareness about environmental impacts of regional gas drilling.

Utica Street multi-families’ garden: $100 for purchasing seeds and plants for a vegetable garden to be shared by four families in the Fall Creek neighborhood.

Spring 2009

“Granny Squares” at Titus Towers: $390 for the purchase of a quilting machine to produce patchwork quilts for auction, promoting financial self-reliance and deeper connectedness within this small group of senior women.

Inter-generational Pizza Baking Project: $250.

Crossroads Critical Commentary: $200 for supporting the start-up of an independent community newsletter on social justice issues.

Linderman Creek Garden Project: $500 for launching a community garden that is accessible to immigrant and low income residents of Ithaca.

Youth Advocate Program’s Media Project: $500 for software for starting a youth media project at Tompkins County Youth Advocate Program.

Fall 2008

Free Will Awareness: $500 to start an indoor basketball league for neighborhood youth in order to promote stronger social ties, teach teamwork and work to overcome racism.

Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC) Middle School: $500 to establish a youth garden.

Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute: $400 for launching the Maple Sugaring Education Project for 45 kindergarteners at BJM. Taught by Steve Gabriel, it included hands-on syrup tapping as well as related classroom exercises in science and math.

SewGreen: $500 for no-cost sewing classes and fabric re-use workshops for lower-income residents.

Southside Neighborhood Association: $500 for development of Southside Neighborhood Association.

Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute: $300 for permaculture design classes led by Joshua Dolan for MHATC

Mutual Housing Association of Tompkins County: $550 for energy audit and landscaping fundraiser.

Southside Community Center: $450 for materials to start a children’s garden.

Southside Neighborhood Association: $850 for development of Southside Neighborhood Association.

Tompkins County Chapter of American Red Cross: $250 for lead inspection.