Bethesda’s Eat the Change Impact, the philanthropic arm of Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman’s plant-based food company, has identified its next batch of funding recipients.
The program, now in its third year, is distributing grants to 39 nonprofits and community organizations totaling $500,000. Goldman and his wife, Julie Farkas, have now awarded $1.25 million since launching the initiative in March 2020.
“Our community-based partners are creating positive, lasting change by developing healthier, stronger people and a healthier planet,” Farkas said in a statement.
This year’s grants, ranging from $10,000 to $25,000, support organizations educating about the source and environmental impact of foods, promoting understanding about the connection between climate change and diet, expanding access to planet-friendly foods in underserved communities and supporting innovation around this work.
ETC Impact selected the grant winners from a group of about 75 applications from 27 states. The list includes multiple local organizations, including a few previous recipients and other new additions:
$25,000
- D.C. Greens, a past recipient, will use the funding to support a new agricultural and community wellness center in Ward 8’s Oxon Run Park.
$15,000
- Silver Spring’s AfriThrive, a previous grant recipient, supports African immigrant communities to grow and sell healthy foods.
- Silver Spring’s Charles Koiner Conservancy for Urban Farming, which has received funding previously, protects and manages D.C.-metro area farms.
$10,000
- D.C.’s Building Bridges Across the River, a new addition this year, will use the grant to increase education and access to fresh food for District residents east of the Anacostia River.
- Impact Silver Spring, new to the 2022 roster, plans to use the grant to support a community garden program in Montgomery County.
- D.C.’s Common Good City Farm, also a first-time grant recipient, which supports healthy food access through urban farming.
- Takoma Park’s Crossroads Community Food Network, which has received funding previously, provides education about the importance of eating fresh produce.
In 2021, Eat The Change Impact gave grants to 36 nonprofits out of more than 100 applications. The 2020 awards, totaling $335,000, went to 21 nonprofits.
ETC Impact launched before its for-profit sister company, Eat the Change, a now 2-year-old venture that makes foods free of animal products, including mushroom jerky and carrot chews. It also owns vegan fast-casual restaurant PLNT Burger from celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn.
The startup is now closing in on a $15 million funding round to reclaim the category Goldman created in 1998 with Honest Tea — and secure the shelf space that The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) will leave behind by sunsetting the brand.
Eat the Change is brewing its first pilot run of Just Ice Tea Monday, while hiring up and racing to a September rollout locally and an October launch in two national chains.
“There’s an urgency on the customers’ part because the shelf space is opening up,” Goldman said in a recent interview. “Just because Coke is pulling out doesn’t mean that the category, or the consumer, has disappeared.”
