2025 SLC Food Microgrant Awardees
In 2025, ninety-six (96) individual residents or households were awarded $250 each to support their own home food production efforts such as vegetable and herb gardens, fruit trees, food preservation, backyard chickens, and beekeeping.
Additionally, Community Grants were awarded to twelve (12) community groups engaged in projects that address one or more of the grant priority categories: growing food, inclusive outreach, dignified food access, and healthy food environments.
See below for a list of Community Grant recipients and a brief
description of what they each used the funding for.
Community Grant Awardees
Backyard Urban Garden Farms LLC (BUG Farms)
Grant Category: Healthy Food Environments
Primary Location(s): Glendale
Organization: BUG Farms has been growing food in Glendale for 16 years. We cultivate un-used plots in our neighborhood to grow produce for our CSA and our neighbors. Our mission is to be a sustainable business economically by growing healthy food in healthy soil, being good neighbors, and providing good jobs to people in our neighborhood.
Project: In order to move forward with sustainable food production and improve food access, we want to take care of the people growing our food. We will provide each of our three employees two paid sick leave days this season. This job is incredibly demanding both physically and mentally and providing more stability in their employment makes this more sustainable for them.
Community Health Centers, Inc.
Grant Category: Inclusive Outreach and Communication
Primary Location(s): Rose Park
Organization: Community Health Centers, Inc. (CHC) is a Federally Qualified Health Center that aims to provide comprehensive healthcare services to individuals and families of all backgrounds. Our vision is that culturally relevant primary health care is available, accessible, affordable and excellent for community members, particularly for individuals, families and groups who are vulnerable and underserved.
Project: Our project is aimed at improving the garden infrastructure of our Rose Park clinic, increasing plant and tree varieties there, and expanding access to the garden for our patients. We would like to make the environment of the garden amenable to educational classes, group visits, and evidence-supported “nature baths.”
Food, Movement and You, U.U. Center for Community Nutrition
Grant Category: Dignified Food Choices
Primary Location(s): Ballpark
Organization: Food, Movement, and You (FMU) is one of The University of Utah Center for Community Nutrition’s (UCCN) community-engaged applied research projects. FMU collaborates with community members who are currently or have previously experienced homelessness to understand barriers they face in equitably accessing food and also collaborates with facilitators that might be leveraged to meet community members’ self-defined needs.
Project: The co-primary aims of this project are to provide seasonal income to two women who have or are facing homelessness to run an established community garden at the Palmer Court complex and also provide free local organic produce to Salt Lake residents who are or have experienced homelessness.
Frog Bench Farms
Grant Category: Growing Food
Primary Location(s): East Bench
Organization: Frog Bench Farms (FBF) is a sustainable urban farm growing on 1.5 acres in Salt Lake City. Founded in 2012, FBF grows fresh greens, microgreens, fruits, herbs, and vegetables that we sell at local farmers markets and restaurants. In addition to growing nutritious produce, we deeply value food education, working to develop a shared language around local food within our Salt Lake community through school tours and nonprofit partnerships.
Project: We will be improving our low tunnels and high tunnels in order to grow food throughout the year, especially winter. We currently use a glass greenhouse, cold frames, and covered outdoor structures such as high tunnels and low tunnels to extend our growing season and continue to grow food for our community even in the dead of winter. However, the current plastic and/or cloth coverings used in our high and low tunnels have degraded over time and are in need of replacing. This will improve crop success as well as staff workload.
Neighborhood House
Grant Category: Growing Food
Primary Location(s): Poplar Grove
Organization: Neighborhood House is a 130-year old organization in Salt Lake City’s westside community. Its mission is to enrich, empower and educate children and adults through quality, affordable day care and support services. Through its Children’s Development Center and Adult Day Services, Neighborhood House offers hardworking families the access to the resources and opportunities they need for health, wellness, and success.
Project: Neighborhood House plans to build on their garden success of past years and ensure the most vulnerable of Salt Lake City’s residents have access to fresh fruits and vegetables grown by their own hand. With the inclusion of bench seating, accessible raised garden beds, an arbor, a secret garden, a climate-controlled greenhouse, and outdoor garden space, both garden programs can be fully utilized by both adults and children throughout the year to grow herbs, peppers, onions, tomatoes, squash, flowers, and more.
New American Goat Club
Grant Category: Growing Food
Primary Location(s): Glendale
Organization: The New American Goat Club is a summer educational program for new Americans ages 8 18 who are interested in learning about goat husbandry and building connections with other youth from similar backgrounds. The club was founded to serve families that had raised goats in their countries of origin for multiple generations, but who now lack the land and resources to do so in their new home. We work with parents and grandparents who want their children and grandchildren to learn about goat rearing and the cultural importance of goat meat.
Project: The New American Goat Club will continue its work in teaching New American youth in the Salt Lake City area about goat husbandry while also developing their leadership and teamwork skills. This year, we plan to purchase 10 young goats for our club members to raise over the summer. We are also planning to coordinate monthly field drips to give youth hands-on opportunities with other organizations and businesses that are engaged in local food systems.
Orenda Urban Farm
Grant Category: Growing Food
Primary Location(s): Ballpark
Organization: Orenda Urban Farm is a small market garden, 1/4 acre between two plots. We hope to have an effect on contributing to our local food shed, showing by example that food can be grown in urban areas, reducing CO2 output by supplying an option for vegetables that are closer to home, and providing food to our local community through a small CSA program, pop ups and farmers markets.
Project: We will be putting on a plant sale this season. The goal of this plant sale is to bring people to gardening and hopefully growing some of their own food, be it in their yard or in a growbag on a balcony. We will be selling these plants from the Ballpark Neighborhood as well as the Wheeler Farmers Market.
Proyecto Xilonen
Grant Category: Inclusive Outreach and Communications
Primary Location(s): Glendale/West Valley
Organization: Proyecto Xilonen was founded with the purpose of educating communities about the history and importance of maize in Mesoamerican culture. By incorporating historical accounts of the effects that settler colonization has had in Mesoamerican food, Chef Jean, one of the cofounders of Proyecto Xilonen, hopes to spark interest in the conservation of indigenous ingredients. Proyecto Xilonen also works to encourage communities and individuals to grow their own food utilizing ancient practices such as the milpa, also known as the Three Sisters Method.
Project: We will cultivate two Milpas, growing maize, squash, beans, and edible flowers. Through the process of growing and harvesting the crops within community settings, we will center educational\ aspects that enrich the communities understanding of the importance of these practices. As part of this, we plan to host educational workshops in multiple community spaces. Additionally, 2-5 student households from the Dual Immersion Academy will receive at-home garden setups.
Rose Park Bee Club
Grant Category: Inclusive Outreach and Communication
Primary Location(s): Rose Park
Organization: Rose Park Bee Club is a new organization, dedicated to the beekeepers in and around Rose Park. We focus on gathering, organizing, and tracking local beekeeper data to manage varroa mites while improving access to education. We also plan on hosting a community tool shed.
Project: This funding will go towards collecting and analyzing data from Rose Park beekeepers, providing education to our community on pollinators and beekeeping, and providing the community tool shed with smaller tools and harvesting equipment.
Salt Lake City Food Not Bombs
Grant Category: Healthy Food Environments
Primary Location(s): Central City
Organization: Salt Lake City Food Not Bombs aims to provide access to nutritious and delicious food for neighbors, community members, and underprivileged residents of Salt Lake City, absolutely free of charge. Our organization has operated continuously in Salt Lake City since 1999.
Project: We will support existing food recovery and food distribution efforts through purchasing equipment (fridge, tables, tents, etc.) and assisting volunteer drivers with gas costs for food deliveries to people who cannot come to our weekly distribution site. We will also continue building upon an organic garden (established in 2023) specifically for Food Not Bombs, where whatever the garden produces is given away, and where beneficiaries have access to a healthy and safe food storage area. Additionally, we will offer free organic gardening classes to the youth from around the city.
Urban Pepper Project
Grant Category: Dignified Food Choices
Primary Location(s): Sugar House
Organization: We have been growing unique peppers from the Pachamama (motherland) of all modern peppers: Peru, Bolivia, and the Yucatan. We committed ourselves to stewarding these new varieties here in Salt Lake City, and vowed to “make Salt Lake spicier, one pepper at a time.” We also grow many other vegetables in an effort to make our local food web more secure for ourselves and our community.
Project: Our project is a side shoot off our primary vegetable plant growing for a spring plant sale and summer market sales. We will grow specialty peppers for recipients in the immigrant or underserved community who are unable to find their favorite peppers in Salt Lake City and gift them with the materials to continue growing their own peppers for years to come.
Vanavil Community Garden
Grant Category: Growing Food
Primary Location(s): Ballpark
Organization: Vanavil means “rainbow” in Tamil, the native language of our garden leader, Priya. The name initially came from us wanting to grow colorful vegetables like yellow tomatoes and purple carrots that are hard to get at grocery stores, but it has grown to also represent inclusivity. We typically grow varieties of fruits and vegetables that we grew up eating, are easy to cook, but hard to find or expensive in stores. We have grown more produce than we need and spread our unique produce to the community through the local buy nothing group and donated to some small businesses.
Project: Our project aims to make a safe, accessible, and welcoming area for growing and consuming fresh produce. The goal is to have a successful growing season while continuing to maintain sustainable practices. This year specifically, we hope to host monthly events in the garden where we can host the community and share what we’ve learned as it is relevant to each stage of the season.