About SOFSA

Need help with food? Visit the Food Bank of CNY, or call 211

SOFSA INITIATIVES

Apply

Every year we accept proposals for food justice projects based in or serving Syracuse, Onondaga County, or Onondaga Nation. Applications are open for projects that are led by nonprofit organizations or who are willing to work with a fiscal sponsor.

– Applications open in February

Vote

The Food Justice Fund Leadership Council reviews initial proposals, and finalists are advanced to community voting. Anyone in Syracuse, Onondaga County, or Onondaga Nation over the age of 14 is eligible to vote on the projects they want to see succeed.

– Voting opens in April

Donate

The Food Justice Fund is made possible due to contributions by our community.

To help continue community grantmaking efforts in years to come, please consider making a donation to the Plant A Seed for SOFSA campaign.

Click here to make a donation.

Food Justice Fund 2025 Awardees

Digital Learning Hub for Traditional Food Systems Experiences

Alternative Project will be creating a digital learning hub to host over 2 dozen workshops, interviews, and educational content exploring Traditional Food Systems. The project will also include a podcast exploring local food economies and food sovereignty, and a rooftop garden demonstration site that will be used to create content teaching folks how to be more self-sufficient in small and innovative spaces.

Applicant: AlterNative Project

Area Served: Syracuse

Award Amount: $3,500

The Environmental Action Lab: Westside Ecofarm

The Environmental Action Lab, a group of educators and environmentalists, is transforming a vacant lot on the West Side of Syracuse into a sustainable urban farm. The project will feature a food forest, garden beds, composting stations, and chickens.

The farm aims to foster food sovereignty, build community connection, and teach environmental stewardship. They plan programs and educational resources for youth and adults to enable them to participate in the design and maintenance of the space.

Applicant: The Environmental Action Lab (TEAL)

Area Served: Syracuse West side

Funds awarded: $4,250

Mesopotamia Market is leading the organizing of a summer farmers market on the Northside, to connect local farmers and refugee entrepreneurs to folks in the community with limited access to culturally relevant food.

The Northside is home to a large population of immigrants and refugees, many of whom lack reliable transportation. By establishing an evening market in this area, residents would have access to fresh food and community. In addition to food vendors, the market boasts community resources and mentorship. It fosters cross-cultural understanding to nurture belonging and connection.

Applicant: Mesopotamia Market LLC

Area Served: Syracuse North side

Award Amount: $5,000

Afica Pure: Syracuse West Side Farmer-Owned Cooperative

Afica Pure is developing a farmer-owned cooperative that would support both BIPOC growers in the region and residents of the North Side that might struggle to access full-scale grocery stores. They’re building connections with farmers, businesses throughout the city, and developing the brick and mortar location to prepare for a successful and sustainable launch. In the meantime, they’re hosting gardening classes to connect youth with where their food comes from and and collecting community feedback to better meet the needs of their future clients.

Applicant: Afica Pure

Area Served: Syracuse West side

Funds awarded: $3,750

Salt City Harvest Farm provides opportunity for New Americans, mostly in the Northside of Syracuse, to grow and sell culturally appropriate food they don’t otherwise have access to. This funded project supports their mutual aid work: compensating farmers who grow food at the farm while donating the produce to food pantries across the city.

20 farmers will be directly supported through this project, and their plots nourished through the purchase and application of cured manure. The food pantries that receive produce from the farm will be better able to meet the needs of their immigrant and refugee patrons, since many fresh foods familiar to them are unavailable through food bank distributions.

Applicant: Salt City Harvest Farm

Area Served: Based in Kirkville, but serves residents of the North side and pantries throughout Syracuse

Award Amount: $4,000

Saint Peter and Paul Orthodox Church: 2024 Food Aid Expansion

Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church is expanding their capacity to provide food aid to the community on the West side of Syracuse. Through this funding they will be able to provide more hot meals and fresh produce to patrons.

Participants in the program will receive nutritious ingredients and coaching to cook their own hot meals, as well as small appliances and equipment to make them. They will also have access to peer navigators to deepen connection and impact.

Applicant: Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church

Area Served: Syracuse West side

Funds awarded: $5,000

Thrive City Church, in the Valley Neighborhood of Syracuse, is launching a new initiative to address food insecurity through a holistic approach. They work with refugees, immigrants, and other members of the surrounding community to support them in accessing healthful food and other resources. The program includes direct food assistance and community food drives, but it also provides cooking classes, budgeting workshops, and transportation support.

As part of the program, multilingual navigators will work with individuals and families to promote self-sufficiency, cultural connection, and community resilience. Long term, the program hopes to establish a community garden and a peer learning and support component.

Applicant: Thrive City Church

Area Served: Syracuse Valley Neighborhood

Award Amount: $4,500

Food Justice Fund 2024 Awardees

Delaney Farms & PEACE, Inc.

Delaney Farms is a family owned farm that prides itself in growing food using Good Agriculture Practices, Integrated Pest Management, and Non-GMO crops. PEACE, Inc. is a Community Action Agency working to tackle poverty through mentorship programs and early education.

Throughout their joint project Delaney Farms and PEACE, Inc. expanded access to fresh produce and created learning opportunities to kids in the PEACE program. Part of the funds from FJF subsidized fresh produce from Delaney Farms, which was delivered to PEACE, Inc. offices and then distributed throughout the city. Additionally, the two organization collaborated to create the “Farmer for a Day” workshops, wherein 40 Syracuse Middle School Youth gained a greater appreciation of the Central New York Food System by doing hands-on learning at the farm: planting, watering, and harvesting produce and flowers.

Head Start | PEACE, Inc.
Delaney Farms – Upstate New York Sweet Corn

Haven Community Garden

Haven Community Garden promotes food security, nutrition education and access to green spaces on the Northside of Syracuse. They grow an assortment of crops for distribution, teaching and facilitating various wellness workshops, and providing community members with hands-on experiences in the garden.

The Haven Community Garden used the awarded funds to purchase both paper and reusable bags, allowing more community members to take produce home. They collaborated with local activist and artist Marion Rodriguez of What Moves You to acquire reusable bags through her buy one, give one model, amplifying the impact of the funding from SOFSA within the community. They will use the remaining funds to purchase food storage solutions and accessible seating in the garden.

Haven Community Garden | Syracuse Grows

Refugee and Immigrant Self Empowerment (RISE)

RISE operates 3 community gardens on the Northside of Syracuse, a mixed vegetable farm in Lacona, NY, and a meat goat farm in Tully, NY. These gardens/farms provide New Americans with the resources and education required to grow and acquire culturally relevant foods in Central NY. Many of RISE’s clients come to the US with extensive agriculture experience and a desire to maintain their agricultural traditions.

The Food Justice fund has supported an increased focus on food distribution and reshaped RISE’s ability to get food to families in need and pay the farmers. By the beginning of September, RISE had purchased over 2000 pounds of produce, paying farmers over $2000 from the SOFSA fund. The farmer participants have reported a positive effect on their lives from the ability to make direct sales to RISE, and for them and RISE to see the direct and meaningful impacts that their hard work has on hunger relief in Syracuse. Final funds will be used to purchase enough corn, squash, beans, tomatillos, cabbage, tomatoes and eggplant.

Agriculture – Refugee and Immigrant Self-Empowerment (RISE)

Interfaith Works

InterFaith Works affirms the dignity of each person and every faith tradition, builds racial and religious equity, and creates bridges of understanding among all. Since receiving the Food Justice Grant, the Aging Services Coalition at InterFaith Works has incorporated “Age Well: Eat Well Days,” outreach events held in trusted community spaces that connect lower-income older adults with resources and education on nutrition and eating healthy. Community partners include the Food Bank of CNY, the Interreligious Food Consortium, and SNAP Ed at Cornell. One “Age Well: Eat Well Day” featured a live cooking demonstration of a healthy side salad with the lunch served to participants, and incorporated healthy eating “themes” into the thank-you gifts and raffle prizes, including gifting spatulas with a healthy recipe attached and a family cookbook raffle prize.

Interfaith Works of Central New York – Affirm Dignity

Deaf New American Advocacy

Asha Laaya Farm provides Deaf farmers land access to grow culturally relevant foods. Farmers distribute the produce at markets to support themselves and family. Since receiving the grant funding, Deaf New American Advocacy has been able to bring water from OCWA to their farm, Asha Laaya. This has allowed them to provide irrigation to the farmer’s plots. Cow manure was also used to support the plant’s nutrient requirements and together this has significantly increased harvest amounts.

Deaf New American Advocacy Inc

The Joe Family Foundation for Disability Advocacy Inc

Joe Family Foundation focuses on nutritional support and education to underserved populations. Using Food Justice Funds, they collaborated with the Syracuse City School District and McKinley-Brighton Elementary School to host a food workshop for disabled children and their families. The event attracted over 150 attendees, including children, parents, caregivers, and teachers. The workshop, led by Chef Danielle, focused on educating participants about nutritious food choices and included a hands-on demonstration where parents learned how to prepare salsa using fresh vegetables. Attendees were able to sample the salsa, and each family took home a jar of our “Brainy Boy Salsa,” along with nutrition education materials. The engagement and feedback from parents and children was overwhelmingly positive, making it a successful outreach effort. They will use the remaining budget to purchase adaptive kitchen equipment and implement a transportation program using Lyft rides, in partnership with United Way’s Ride United Program, to increase program accessibility.

Joe Family Foundation

Food Access Healthy Neighborhoods Now

FAHNN is a community grassroots organization since 2020, focused on increasing access to healthy foods for residents living in and around the City of Syracuse’s Valley/South Side neighborhoods.

Food Access Health Neighborhoods Now! (FAHNN) hosts a weekly Wednesday Evening Market and Educational Workshop Series which is supported by the funding. Workshops were often well attended by community members and included presentations by Syracuse Community Health, FoodBank of CNY, Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project, and Creating Healthy Schools and Communities. Funds were also used for market outreach through advertisements, social media, signs, and banners. Funds were also used for a Market Delivery Service and on-site market WiFi.

FAHNN – Syracuse

About the Syracuse-Onondaga Food Justice Fund:

The Food Justice Fund is a community grantmaking project (sometimes called “participatory grantmaking”). That means that the final awardees of this fund will be selected by voting process that is open to any resident over the age of 14. The application process and selection criteria have been designed by the Food Justice Fund Leadership Council (FJFLC) – a diverse group of community leaders committed to building a more just and equitable food system in our region.

Thanks to the generous community of individuals as well as matching funds from the Onondaga County Agricultural Council and a grant from the NY Health Foundation, SOFSA will distribute $22,000 to local projects that empower community members of Syracuse, Onondaga County, and Onondaga Nation to foster understanding and collaboration to improve local food systems and accessibility for the benefit of everyone in the community.

Why Do We Invest in Community Grantmaking?

A core component of SOFSA’s mission is to align resources (not only monetary, but human, capital, equipment, land, etc.) across the network to maximize our collective impact. As part of this effort, the organization’s Fund Development Committee adopted principles of Community-Centric Fundraising in 2021 as part of SOFSA’s Equity and Justice Action Plan. In addition, the committee made a commitment to dedicate a minimum of 15% of funds from any grant or donation over $50k to support under-resourced partners across the network – and to encourage our well-resourced partners to undertake similar goals in their own fundraising practices. This commitment – and all of SOFSA’s work – is informed by health justice, the collective movement to heal society and remove barriers that prevent individual and community well-being.