The PCF micro-grant application is open to established small California-based farms, ranches, fishing, and aquaculture operations that are looking to accomplish a specific project within one year. We are accepting applications via Google Forms from September 27th to November 8th, 2023. If you are interested in reading a few of the 2022 winners' grant applications, please visit our Successful Application Examples page to help inspire you. 

Para ver nuestra solicitud en español, haga clic aquí.

 

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$20,000 Contribution to Shone Farm / Santa Rosa Junior College
In 2022, three interns were hired through the Pine Cone Foundation Internship Fund: Savannah Hill, Jesse Gonzales, and KP Pondolfino. The funding allowed the students to be hired for Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters at Shone Farm. This stable source of funding was especially appreciated by the students as they were able to work and take classes at Santa Rosa Junior College with a sense of job security. In total, the interns worked 2,160 hours and were paid a living wage of $18+/per hour.

Hukama Produce $3,380 Micro-Grant
The Pine Cone Foundation micro-grant allowed Hukama Produce to purchase a multitude of equipment to increase efficiency at this BIPOC-owned farm. The owner, Byron Nkhoma stated in his recap report, “The salad and kale spinner has been of great help so far, it is efficient and dries the product well. Dryer greens mean longer shelf life which has enabled us to be admitted into the Carlsbad School District for school lunches. Our supply of 160 lbs of kale per week makes 900+ servings for school kids, which we could not have accomplished without your funding.”

Casa Grande High School’s United Anglers $5,000 Grant
With the help of Pine Cone Foundation’s funding, UACG created a Rescue and Rearing Plan for endangered Steelhead Trout. With this strategy, they applied for and received a permit to authorize UACG to execute their conservation effort. The Rescue and Rearing permit allows students to collect/save any stranded Steelhead in the Petaluma watershed, perform tissue sampling, identify and understand rearing habitat, release them into the wild, potentially grant us access to new land, and improve our understanding of the species in our watershed. UACG currently has approximately 900 Adobe Creek Steelhead trout in their facility that would have perished due to the severe drought conditions California continues to face. With the new program, United Anglers students are eagerly taking action and UACG has evolved into a year-round operation, with students volunteering throughout the summer months.

   

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We are thrilled to support the following operations for our first annual Micro-Grant Program:
• Leonard Vargas of @pixca.farm in San Diego • 
• Zee Husain of @kula.nursery in Berkeley • 
• Byron Nkhoma of @hukamaproduce in Ramona • 
We will share additional details about the winners in the new year…stay tuned!
We wish to express our deep appreciation to all that applied, we were humbled and inspired by your stories and the volume of applications. Looking forward to launching the second annual grant application in September of 2023.

   

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We have new merch! In honor of Giving Tuesday, those who donate $50, $75 or $100 from today until December 4th will receive our branded Nalgene bottle. These are top quality, made in the USA, and BPA-free gems that are always handy to have around to keep you hydrated. What will we do with your donation? All contributions will be used in full for our Micro-Grant Program, so you are directly helping small-scale California-based foodways purveyors succeed. We had a tremendous turnout for our first annual application appeal and we’re fundraising so we can allot additional grants for 2022, yes this year! Help us, help farmers, ranchers, fisheries, and aquaculture operations…donate easily from our homepage via the link in our bio, tax receipts will be emailed and your bottle will be shipped via USPS on December 6th.