Meet Our 2024 Food4All Mini-Grant Partners!
Published on Feb 6, 2024 in Food4All, Immigrants, State Legislation
We are excited to present our 2024 Food4All Mini-Grant partners! These ten organizations are working closely with Nourish California to uplift the Food4All campaign and communicate its value to policymakers and their own communities.
What is our Food4All Mini-Grant?
Our mini-grant partnership is fundamental to the success of the Food4All campaign. Through our previous partnerships, mini-grant partners have created community facing documents around Food4All, led legislative visits with their representatives, spoken at press conferences, and engaged members of their own network to participate in legislative advocacy and lead the Food4All work.
Thank you to The California Endowment and The Crankstart Foundation for making these grants possible.
Our Mini-Grant Partners:
Central Valley Immigrant Integration Collaborative (CVIIC) - Clovis
Mission: To serve as the leading immigrant integration organization in the Central Valley, dedicated to ensuring full participation of immigrants in building strong, vibrant, inclusive communities. We do this by: collaborating, mobilizing and combining the resources and talents of our allies to offer, on a large scale, high quality immigration and naturalization services; strengthening and growing the capacity of our members to serve and empower immigrant communities, and support leadership development by leveraging needed public and private sector resources; working to change the dominant discourse about immigrants and immigration; working to achieve policies which support opportunities for immigrants to pursue their dreams.
“Despite its overall prosperity, California is a state with great socio-economic inequality. In recent years we have witnessed high inflation rates that have increased food insecurity for low-income Californians, including those residing in Central Valley communities where unemployment and poverty rates have been higher than the national averages. Investment by the State of California in the Food4All program is needed to help address the needs of our most vulnerable community members and enable adults and children to thrive in the Golden State.”
Jesus Martinez Ph.D, Executive Director
San Diego Hunger Coalition - San Diego
Mission: San Diego Hunger Coalition leads coordinated action to end hunger in San Diego County supported by research, education, and advocacy.
"We are proud that California is once again leading the way in reducing nutrition insecurity by removing antiquated and inequitable barriers to food assistance. We stand ready to build upon this momentum to ensure anyone, regardless of immigration status, can access food assistance and will continue to advocate to that end."
Alondra Alvarado, President & CEO
Healthy Kids Happy Faces (HKHF) - Los Angeles
Mission: Our mission at Heathy Kids Happy Faces (HKHF) is to provide our community with the knowledge and necessary tools on learning about the different areas of child development, specifically focused on the prevention of child abuse. In doing so, parents can offer their children healthy environments and homes where children can feel loved and a sense of security.
“Food4all is a very valuable proposal for the community being that food is a basic human right.”
Zoila Bravo, Director
Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) - Oxnard
Mission: Mixteco's mission is to support, organize and empower the indigenous migrant communities in California’s Central Coast.
"We join the food security movement for the health and wellbeing of our indigenous community and that of our future generation. As indigenous communities we cultivate and steward the land that sustains us, yet solely because of our immigration status, we are excluded from the right to food. Our ancestral knowledge and wisdom is extracted to work the land that feeds and sustains the Golden State, but we see little in return from our labor to sustain our bodies and minds. We are fully committed to food justice until there is food sovereignty for all indigenous communities and people. #Food4All"
Vanessa Teran, Policy Director
ÓRALE- Long Beach
Mission: Órale is building and sustaining a thriving immigrant-led movement to end the criminalization of immigrants and secure bold protections and opportunities that allow immigrant communities to thrive.
Misión: Somos un poderoso movimiento intergeneracional de inmigrantes que elimina los sistemas opresivos y crea prácticas liberadoras y curativas basadas en el amor y la justicia. Imaginamos un mundo donde las comunidades de inmigrantes vivan con dignidad, se sientan seguras y tengan oportunidades para prosperar.
"All Californians should have access to food no matter their immigration status. At ORALE, we host bi-weekly food distributions in the cities of Long Beach and Wilmington and we see the positive impact that food access has on immigrant families. We also acknowledge distributions like ours are a temporary relief. California needs to expand food program eligibility so that no person goes hungry. Our communities deserve the opportunity to thrive! "
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"Todos los californianos deben tener acceso a los alimentos, independientemente de su estatus migratorio. En ORALE, organizamos distribuciones quincenales de alimentos en las ciudades de Long Beach y Wilmington y vemos el impacto positivo que el acceso a los alimentos tiene en las familias inmigrantes. También reconocemos que distribuciones como la nuestra son un alivio temporal. California necesita ampliar la elegibilidad del programa de alimentos para que ninguna persona pase hambre. Nuestras comunidades merecen la oportunidad de prosperar. "
Maribel Cruz, Associate Director (Directora Asociada)
National Health Foundation (NHF) - Los Angeles
Mission: National Health Foundation's mission is to improve the health of under-resourced communities.
“NHF is excited to be a partner in the fight for Food4All. We believe that everyone, no matter who they are, where they live, or where they came from, has access to the essential resources, like food, to live a healthy life.”
Melissa Arvizu, Director of Nutrition & Food Security Programs
The Women’s Building - San Francisco
Mission: The Women’s Building is a historically women-led and community driven space on a mission to provide resources to recognize their collective power and self-determination.
"The Women’s Building is dedicated to ensuring that everyone especially, women, immigrants and those who are at the intersections of multiple identities and oppressions have access to essential safety net programs. We are grateful to work collectively and collaboratively alongside the coalition as we work towards a more equitable California and ensuring that everyone, no matter their status, has access to food to care for themselves and their families. #Food4All"
Kristen Acosta, Community Engagement Coordinator
Oakland HOPS - Oakland
Mission: Oakland HOPS is a collective of youth advocates bringing change to the food market environment of Oakland, California through policy.
Student advocates expand their knowledge on food apartheid and inaccessibility to healthy foods. They gain leadership skills, conduct research and outreach to community members, and learn the ins and outs of city politics.
“We support Food4All because access to food is an essential human right, and there are currently many factors that restrict access to healthy, nutritious foods. Providing food benefits to all Californians, no matter their immigration status, is a major step towards equity and a healthier, safer lifestyle”
The Oakland HOPS youth advocates
Visión y Compromiso (VyC)-Statewide
Mission: Vision y Compromiso (VyC) is committed to the communities well-being by supporting the personal and professional development of Promotor@s and Community Health Workers.
Misión: Visión y Compromiso (VyC) está comprometida en lograr el bienestar de las comunidades y lo hacemos a través de apoyar el desarrollo personal y profesional de l@s Promotor@s y Líderes comunitari@s.
| “Vision y Compromiso, along with its Statewide Promotoras Network has supported and been part of the Food For All Campaign since it launched, and we applaud the expansion of Cal-Fresh to include persons aged 55 and older regardless of their immigration status, beginning October 1, 2025. We also believe that no Senior, no child should go to bed hungry due to their lack of money to buy food. There is still much more work to do in California.
VyC Promotoras Network will continue advocating for the expansion and for no exclusions to healthy food access to all Californians, regardless of their age and immigration status. Vision y Compromiso’s Vision is to work towards a healthy and dignified life for all. We know that with this strong and united Food 4 All coalition, we are advancing in making this human right from being disregarded. ¡Para Adelante! ¡Si se puede!” ----- “Vision y Compromiso junto con su Red Estatal de Promotor@s y Lideres Comunitari@s, ha sido parte desde el lanzamiento de la campaña de Comida para Todos y aplaudimos la expansión del programa de Cal-fresh para incluir a personas de 55 años y más a partir del 1ro de octubre del 2025, sin importar su estado migratorio. También creemos que nadie debería de irse a dormir con hambre debido a la falta de dinero para comprar comida, Todavía hay mucho más trabajo que hacer en California. Vision y Compromiso continuará abogando por la expansión y por la no exclusión del acceso de comida saludable para todos los Californianos, sin importar su edad o estado migratorio. La Vision de Vision y Compromiso es hacia una vida digna y sana para todos. Sabemos que con esta Coalición unida y fuerte de Comida para Todos, estamos avanzando en asegurar que este derecho humano no sea ignorado. ¡Adelante! ¡Si se puede!” |
Inland Congregations United for Change - San Bernadino and Riverside Counties
Mission: Inland Congregations United for Change is a faith-based 501(c) (3) non-profit community organization serving San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. ICUC empowers people of faith to transform and revitalize the Inland Empire by working in the civic arena for the common good.
The mission of ICUC is to assist communities of faith who desire to initiate or deepen social ministry within their congregation. Professional community organizers train congregation members in the principles of faith-based civic engagement and coach leaders through self-selected, relevant and practical community organization efforts. Through these efforts, individual participants develop public leadership skills and become catalysts of positive change within their congregations, neighborhoods and cities.
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