About Grants 4 Plants
In 2018, Mountain Rose Herbs launched its annual Grants 4 Plants Program. Each year, a $5,000 grant is awarded to five recipients who are working to take care of people while protecting the planet. This year, we received 234 applications and were inspired by the passion, creativity, and commitment of our growing herbal community (search #grants4plants on YouTube and other social media channels to view all the incredible submissions!). After careful consideration, we have selected five projects that align with our values and will have a lasting positive impact in their communities and beyond. Join us in congratulating this year's grantees and celebrating herbal education, environmental stewardship, and our plant-loving community!
Meet the Winners
Tavon Learning Center
Project Description:
Tavon Learning Center is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance the lives of those living with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Tavon's learning gardens are an aspect of their Nature-Based Learning program, which operates under the core principle that everyone deserves and benefits from access to nature. Outdoor experiential education enhances creativity, boosts self-esteem, and enables its members to improve communication, pre-vocational, and creative thinking skills.
This project encourages its members to spend more time learning and working in the therapeutic gardens. Members with limited mobility are provided with adaptive tools to garden alongside their peers while the placement of plant signage allows members, staff, and visitors to learn the indigenous histories and uses of plant species in the gardens. The herbs grown are harvested and used to create medicinal products that are then shared with the local community.
Flower Hill Institute
Project Description:
Flower Hill Institute (FHI) is a Native American managed, community-directed nonprofit based in the Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico. Their objectives include preserving and enhancing Tribal cultural resources, preparing youth to inherit leadership roles, improving economic self-sufficiency, organizing intertribal initiatives, and improving climate change resiliency. As a means of building cultural competency, leadership capacity, and interest in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) among Native American youth in New Mexico, FHI has been providing educational camps on cultural and STEM topics since 2016. Flower Hill's camps use an educational model where camp staff and partnering educators teach a hybrid of "western" science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. This unique combination provides an opportunity for students to learn how to monitor and care for the natural world. A central part of these camps is herbalism and the identification and use of traditional plants and medicines. A focus on traditional plants allows these camps to provide a bicameral look at the role these plants play in culture and ecosystems.
Herbalists Without Borders: Detroit Chapter
Project Description
Herbalists Without Borders (HWB) is a global community that aims to provide all people access to affordable natural and botanical wellness preparations. To bring that vision into reality, they work with community-based chapters to create educational, advocacy, and grassroots model projects to fill the gaps in health justice on an international scale.
The Detroit Chapter is currently working to create a food-safe kitchen and event space to process herbal medicine for the community. By purchasing a large tincture press as well as other appliances, they will be able to increase their yields and diversify their herbal offerings for their rapidly growing herbal community. Through dozens of skill shares, their community apothecary currently offers tinctures, salves, oxymels, hydrosols, oils, and a seed library. At this time, apothecary items are stored in the homes of various HWB Detroit chapter members and distributed at various markets and pop-up events. This has posed a logistical challenge since there is no central location for the community to access these items when in specific times of need. They were recently welcomed to the Sound House, a rent-free art house established in 2009 by PHP, an artist-run, neighborhood-based non-profit. With funding from Grants 4 Plants, they will be able to transform this space into a food-safe location so they can process plant medicines, have a common space for meetings and skill shares, and better serve the community.
Holistic Divine Innovations
Project Description
This nonprofit organization applied for the 2020 Grants4 Plants, which offered Mountain Rose Herbs the opportunity to see how far they have come since their last application. Seeing that despite not winning the grant the first time around, they pushed forward with their plans and reapplied in 2021. It's a good thing that they did!
Their organizational mission is to show innovative, holistic ways of living by teaching self-sustainability through gardening and agriculture, herbalism, and maintaining one’s connection to nature. They were gifted another 1/4 acre lot where they will be building an Herbal Zen Garden to teach holistic practices to members of the greater Ridgecrest, California area. This garden will expand food resources, help beautify the city, and pilot a healthy community that practices and values wellness. The Herbal Zen Garden will create a space for healing and will allow them to build a stronger educational platform for them to teach gardening, medicinal uses of herbs, how to make herbal preparations, and so much more.
Somerville Community Growing Center
Project description:
Since 1994, the Somerville Community Growing Center in Massachusetts has been a place for gathering, learning, and celebrating. The Center is also a model for urban land use and collaboration between city government and local nonprofit and community agencies. This urban oasis was designed and built by local residents and is maintained by volunteers.
They are currently working to expand their Community Herb Project, which offers equitable access to their green space, herbs, and programming. This project will continue to create strong community relationships with a diverse membership of the city. This project focuses on utilizing the expertise of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color herbalists in their community, and offering fair compensation for sharing their sharing of knowledge and wisdom. More programming for children and caregivers will be added to the program and they will grow culinary and medicinal herbs for the kids, families, and staff of their local YMCA and Head Start Preschool. They are also working to increase their herb processing capabilities, all of which are offered for free to community members. This project is committed to acknowledging the original stewards of the Land and forging relationships that can include use of the space and access to herbs and other plants that grow here.
Looking for more inspirational projects?
Learn About the 2020 Winners
Meet Our Past Winners:
