It's Giving Tuesday — Meet These Great Nonprofits
Please consider these change-makers for your contributions
Great Food and Gratitude
The series of fundraising events presented over the past few weeks by The Evolved Network nonprofit have invariably been both delicious and inspiring. The Eat & Evolve tasting event held Monday (November 28) at Chicago’s Eden restaurant was no exception.
Sebastian White — chef, clinical psychologist and founder/president of The Evolved Network — gave a presentation about the organization’s mission, which is to support underprivileged youths by building their skills in culinary arts, restaurant management and finances while providing clinical and therapeutic services to help them overcome traumas of growing up in challenging environments.
He shared the microphone with Chef Sarah Stegner of Prairie Grass Cafe, the leading advocate of his work (with Sebastian in the above photo); Eden owner Jodi Fyfe, who opened the restaurant for the event on a usually dark Monday night; and leaders of the Pilot Light food eduction program and educators with whom Sebastian works to provide culinary lessons in three schools around Chicago.
The rest of the evening was all about the food samples created by an all-star lineup of chefs. Besides Sebastian and Sarah, there were Devon Quinn of Eden; Darnell Reed of Luella’s Southern Kitchen; Mary Aregoni of Saigon Sisters; Paul Kahan and Rob Levitt of The Publican and Publican Quality Meats; Tigist Reda of Demera Ethiopian Restaurant; and Lindsey Anderson of Uvae Kitchen and Wine Bar.
If you missed Monday’s event but want to make a Giving Tuesday donation to a young organization that is already making a big impact, click the button below. Scroll down for more photos from last night, after these important Giving Tuesday messages from three other great nonprofits: Angelic Organics Learning Center, Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT), and Wild Onion co-op market.
Help Angelic Organics Learning Center Build a Stronger Local Food System
Angelic Organics Learning Center in Caledonia, Illinois provides training for new and early-stage farmers to enable them to thrive, while working to building a stronger and more resilient local food community of producers and consumers. Here is what they want you to know about their Planting for the Future Today fundraising campaign that they kicked off today, Giving Tuesday.
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Let's raise $20,000!
Your support is essential for strengthening relationships between farmers and local people who rely on them. Together we are planting your future — an equitable, healthful, culturally relevant, local farm and food economy that respects land and water, and the people and animals it sustains.
The wisdom behind the Learning Center’s mission was tested over the past few years. With the onset of the pandemic, we witnessed international food supply chains immediately severed, and national and regional food supply chains weakened and failing.
Those with resources and access responded by turning to farmers markets and local CSAs to keep them healthy and well-fed while our farmers struggled to meet the sudden increase in demand. But far too many families were unable to take advantage of local sources, leaving 1 in 9 households without access to enough nutritious food to sustain a healthy life.
How do we ensure our farmers are prepared for future surges, and our communities have access to food in times of crisis?
We responded to this challenge with a deep re-commitment to our work by nurturing our staff and community, and building enduring partnerships with mission individuals and organizations that share our values. We continued to provide support and education to our farmers, fresh produce to our friends and neighbors in need, and a safe place for young minds and hearts to grow. Our long-term success is achieved when our participants contribute to a more resilient food system as farmers, consumers, advocates, and friends.
As we strive to bring resources to our communities for a better tomorrow, there is one resource we turn to today — our community of supporters! With your help to plant the seeds of giving among your peers, we can continue our work building a world of resilient systems and citizens. Join us in Planting Your Future Today.
Help FACT Pursue Humane Treatment of Animals
Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) works every day to promote humane treatment of livestock, reduce or eliminate unnecessary use of antibiotics on farm animals; and expand capacity of humane livestock farms through its Fund-a-Farmer program. Thanks to the generosity of four of its Board members, Giving Tuesday contributions will be matched up to $7,400.
Here’s FACT’s Giving Tuesday pitch.
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As people around the world come together to support important causes, please consider helping FACT in our mission to support farmers and their animals, and in making safe and healthy food a reality for all.
"Raising sheep has been and continues to be one of the greatest joys of my life." ~ Lydia Strand.
Your support is helping passionate, humane farmers like Lydia Strand, owner of Lydia's Flock in Washington. This year the farm received a Fund-a-Farmer grant from FACT to purchase supplies to provide winter housing for their flock of pastured sheep.
Not only does the new housing protect their pastures, it also ensures that their sheep are safe and comfortable in a clean, dry, well-ventilated space during the winter with plenty of space for their breeding ewes.
Thanks again for your generous support.
Give to Help Wild Onion Co-op Open Its Doors
Wild Onion Market is the developing food co-op that is raising money to enable it to open its doors in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood (7007 N. Clark St.) next spring. Here’s their Giving Tuesday pitch.
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Why should you choose to support Wild Onion Market?
1. Your donation (instructions below) is tax-deductible. It also qualifies for most employer match programs, doubling or even tripling your gift.
2. Food co-ops light the way for the future and are part of a movement. In case you missed it, check out the WBEZ story on building food co-ops in Chicago, featuring Wild Onion Market HERE.
3. This is a one-time ask and a chance to have real, tangible impact in our Chicago community. All gifts go directly toward build-out of our community-owned grocery store. This Giving Tuesday our goal is to reach $80,000, which will fund all exterior improvements and signage, especially along the Clark Street corridor.
HOW to support Wild Onion Market:
1. To donate click HERE, select or write in an amount, and choose "Wild Onion Market" from the list below. You can pay via credit card online.
2. Owners can still make Owner-only investments in the co-op. If you would like to do so, please reach out to Invest@WildOnionMarket.com
More From The Evolved Network Event
The Publican team of Paul Kahan (left) and Rob Levitt work up open-faced sandwiches made with Publican Quality Bread’s Sesame Semolina and mortadella produced by Rob, a master of charcuterie.
Tigist Reda (right) of Demera Ethiopian Restaurant chats with Eda Davidman, a member of the core organizing team for this year’s three massive Chicago Chefs Cook events that raised money for victims of war in Ukraine and the Ethiopian province of Tigray (of which Tigist is a native) and of a hurricane that devastated Puerto Rico.
Jodi Fyfe, owner of Eden restaurant, opened it on Monday (when it is usually closed) for the Eat & Evolve event.
Alexander DeSorbo-Quinn, executive director of the Pilot Light food education nonprofit, discussed her organization’s work with Sebastian White (right) and The Evolved Network.
The participating chefs had plenty of mouths to feed at the well-attended Eat & Evolve event.
Do you know the basis on which Wild Onion is saying that contributions are tax deductible? I had the understanding that coops were for profit businesses (albeit owned by the members) and that contributions could not be deducted. I would love to be proven wrong.