Annual General Elections

For printable versions of the ballot and supplemental information that may be downloaded, see the below links:

COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY FUND NOMINEES

  • Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras

  • Arizona Youth Partnership (AZYP)

  • Beyond Foundation

  • Bootstraps to Share of Tucson DBA BICAS

  • Community Gardens of Tucson

  • Desert Harvesters

  • Fluxx Productions Inc

  • Friends of Marty Birdman

  • I Am You 360

  • ITZABOUTIME productions

  • Northern Jaguar Project

  • Pima Community College Foundation for ARC Resource Center & Food Pantry

  • Poder Casas Moviles

  • Splinter Art and Community Fund

  • Tucson for Everyone, Yes in My Back Yard

  • Tucson Village Farm

  • University of Arizona Foundation FBO Cooper Center for Environmental Learning

  • Watershed Management Group

  • Youth On Their Own (YOTO)

  • Youth Outdoor Experience dba Ironwood Tree Experience

Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras

Our Mission is to strengthen the vitality of the Original Peoples through the dignified amplification of ancestral traditions, shared stories, mother language, and enduring bond with Mother Earth. This work is carried out via our cultural programming and two primary projects, the Indigenous Languages Office and the Plant Cruzer project.

We plan to host one event during the summer for the annual Bahidaj Harvest (saguaro fruit). The intention is to connect our community to this traditional local food, to educate on environmental sustainability and build community. Participants will come together to camp, share food and harvest. Some of the funds will be used for this harvest. The remaining funds will be used to support the Plant Cruzer desert plant/non desert ethical and sustainable harvesting and medicine making operations, which in turn will be offered to community members to promote Indigenous health and positive relationship to the environment.

Arizona Youth Partnership (AZYP)

Arizona Youth Partnership (AZYP) is making a profound impact in Tucson and its surrounding communities by cultivating healthy foundations for youth and fostering resilient families. Approaching our 35th anniversary, AZYP was founded as a grassroots effort in rural Pima County and has since expanded statewide to boost youth substance abuse prevention, relationship and life skills, reduce runaway and homelessness among youth, mental health supports and resources, and family instability. Guided by its mission to empower youth to harness their strengths to live healthy and purposeful lives, AZYP equips young people with tools, confidence, and authority to shape their own futures. AZYP believes every youth has unique strengths to be discovered and nurtured, and through evidence-based programs like relationship education, afterschool initiatives, leadership development, wrap-around housing services, and mental health supports, AZYP team helps youth recognize these strengths, build skills, and overcome obstacles they face in life and in the community. In Tucson and surrounding areas like Marana, Sahuarita, and Ajo, AZYP partners with all sectors of the community to deliver tailored services. AZYP uplifts entire communities as a true community-serving organization. AZYP’s work in the Tucson region reflects its commitment to breaking cycles of hardship, fostering resilience, and creating lasting change, one empowered youth.

AZYP will use the awarded funds as flexible support to boost AZYP’s Mission Support efforts, making a real difference in our programming and to the youth served. Funds will help tackle food access, hunger, and social challenges by keeping our evidence-based programs strong by including lunch, snack, and dinner to support youth and families. AZYP knows that food brings people together and keeps youth full and sustained so they can enjoy learning and having fun. Funds will provide family dinners for the Stronger Families Project, where families share a healthy meal before the bonding and prevention curriculum. AZYP will also provide snacks and lunches for our summer program youth, giving them a safe, fun, and supportive summer program.

Beyond Foundation

Beyond is a small, but mighty non-profit that offers free education and opportunities to help people to be active and healthy. Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of our community through the use of science and analysis. Our holistic programs are based upon four pillars: move your body, eat nutritious foods, spend time in nature, and connect with others. What started out as a single day of commemoration for the January 8th, 2011 mass shooting, has grown to a year round commitment to public health – recognizing the need for more social, emotional and cognitive health as a community. Our Meet Me program is a free weekly walk/run/social event for all ages and abilities every Monday evening. Beyond Hikes is a monthly beginner hiking program to introduce individuals to experiencing nature in a supportive way. Beyond Bikes is an in-school program for low-income elementary and middle school students that gives them access to bikes and a curriculum that involves all 4 pillars. Our Meet Me and Beyond Bikes programs are based out of downtown Tucson to increase accessibility, diversity, equity and inclusion. We rely on a small part-time staff and dozens of volunteers to engage a wide range of our community in activities that help them be healthy and active at all ages, all abilities, and across socio-economic differences. Through each of our programs, we are engaging local individuals to understand the "why" or rather the science that helps us truly achieve positive behavioral change.

We will use funds to support our "Beyond Bikes" program to help improve the health and lives of underserved, low-income youth in Tucson. With a growing mental health crisis and ongoing childhood obesity epidemic, there is immense need in the community to educate young people on holistic wellness and offer opportunities for them to be active and healthy. Beyond has developed, piloted, and facilitated a highly successful, unique and scientifically-backed bike program since 2021. We get underserved students outdoors and moving safely on bikes, learning to connect with one another and their community, and understanding their nutritional needs to help their overall health and well-being. Specifically, we will use funds for supplies and staff to facilitate an 8-week-long nutrition course at Imago Dei MS to accompany our bike program for 95 students who qualify for free lunch. Through bikes, we can address major issues and have a major positive impact.

Bootstraps to Share of Tucson DBA BICAS

Bootstraps to Share of Tucson was founded in 1989 with the goal of empowering people of all ages and backgrounds to use bicycles as a practical tool for transportation, recreation, and self-expression. Since obtaining our 501(c)3 status in 1991, BICAS has been a proud non profit organization for 32 years and has worked hard to make the community stronger. BICAS has been dedicated to providing access to tools and resources to help people learn how to build, maintain, and ride bicycles safely and sustainably. BICAS offers a variety of programs, including educational workshops, bicycle repair classes, and bicycle safety classes. Additionally, BICAS preserves and recycled parts, bicycles and tools in order to promote sustainability. These parts are re-used in arts workshops to offer sustainable arts programming to the community. On average, BICAS serves 4,000 people each year, allowing thousands of people to gain access to transportation needed to thrive. BICAS promotes bicycle education, art and salvage to adults, children and marginalized communities.

If awarded a grant of $2,500, BICAS will utilize funds to provide free mobile bike repair to unhoused and low-income neighbors every two weeks for three hours. Free mobile repair allows low-income and unhoused neighbors to have the ability to gain access to bike transportation in order to access community resources, obtain and maintain employment, and achieve mobility. As of January 2025, BICAS established a partnership with Amphi Mutual Aid Liberation to provide free bike repair to individuals at mutual aid events. Presently, BICAS provides services every 4 weeks and would like to increase this amount to every 2 weeks, if awarded funding. Through these services, BICAS aims to serve 350 people per year with the goal of providing quick, easy and free access to bike repair, allowing individuals to achieve self-sufficiency and have the ability to access important community resources such as food, employment, medical care and community services.

Community Gardens of Tucson

The Desert Gardening Program is the cornerstone of Community Gardens of Tucson’s public gardening initiative and encompasses 20 community gardens throughout Tucson, many of which are located in low-income communities. Each garden features 20-30 individual garden plots equipped with automatic drip irrigation. We offer tools, irrigation and equipment on-site, as well as communal areas like fruit trees and picnic tables. Registration is open for renting a plot year-round, and anyone can join the garden. We currently have approximately 350 families gardening with us throughout Tucson. Not only do our gardens provide access to healthy produce, they build garden communities who share gardening knowledge, garden chores, and educational and recreational activities. The Kids in Gardens Program involves approximately 600 Pre-K through 12th grade students, many from low-income and underserved areas. Through a science-based garden curriculum, we teach students how to grow, harvest, and prepare fresh food in school gardens. The Food Resiliency Program aims to enhance access to gardening, outdoor spaces, and opportunities to be a part of a garden community. Through this program, we work to increase access to fresh self-grown produce by offering individuals and families in need by offering sliding-scale payment opportunities and/or full scholarships for garden membership. This program provides access to an individual gardening space and communal areas, as well as soil amendments, seeds, plant starts, and sustainable desert gardening and nutrition education to set gardeners up for success in growing their own food.

We plan to utilize the award funds to invest in increased food access through our Food Resiliency Program. This program currently serves over 100 families. Participants have shared with us that this program has provided their only access to fresh produce due to either budget or transportation challenges. Others have shared that this allows them the opportunity to access foods that are culturally appropriate to them and otherwise difficult to obtain. Our participants tell us that gardening offers them mental health benefits that help relieve the stresses of their daily lives. The need for financial assistance to participate in gardening currently exceeds the number of gardening families that we can support. This award would allow us to expand the opportunity to additional families to help meet our community needs.

Desert Harvesters

Desert Harvesters is a local non-profit dedicated to inspiring and empowering folks to develop a deeper, tastier connection to place. Desert Harvesters nurtures the next generation of desert lovers and stewards by welcoming inclusion and partnership, creating a succession model that promises a delicious, healthy, wild food future. We organize and create community events: Farmers Market Demos, Public Library presentations, seasonal guided neighborhood harvest walks, tastings, trainings, mesquite millings, and more. To ensure that safe, high-quality desert foods are available to the community, DH offers hands-on and website resources and videos about harvesting, processing, and cooking desert foods. We collaborate with partner organizations and local businesses, including Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, Santa Cruz River Farmers Market, Las Milpitas Farm, Pima County Public Library, BASA (Baja AZ Sustainable Agriculture), GARDEN Inc, Bean Tree Farm, Beacon Foundation and others. We create written educational materials: award-winning cookbooks Eat Mesquite! and Eat Mesquite and More: A Cookbook for Sonoran Desert Foods and Living!, educational and visual aids, hand-outs, posters and textiles, artwork, Desert Harvest Series templates, etc. We innovate and celebrate recipes and desert foods, inspiring folks to experiment and create their own new recipes. Our new cookbook edition (created with grant support from Community Food Bank) is available at the Co-op, and the library maintains 50 copies!

Desert Harvesters is currently in conversation with Community Food Bank, Arizona Homemade Artisans, Sonoran Permaculture, Pima County Master Naturalists and others to create a new series of seasonal workshops that can be offered to the community on a sliding scale or fee-free basis. DH team's long time foundation in Permaculture design and practice brings together food justice, food security, community resiliency and environmental health together in a way that has been useful to many organizations over the years. There is currently no funding for us to engage in this process. Funding support from our food co-op would help support DH's educational team during planning and design of events that will increase access to more of our community.

Fluxx Productions Inc.

Fluxx Productions is a community-rooted arts and advocacy organization born from the revolutionary spirit of Boys R Us—a groundbreaking gender performance troupe that challenged norms and redefined visibility for Tucson’s queer and trans communities. What began as a stage for radical self-expression has evolved into a dynamic hub for cultural transformation, where Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (QTBIPOC) are not only centered, but celebrated. Today, Fluxx stands as a creative lifeline in Southern Arizona, offering programs that blend performance, wellness, and social justice. Our work meets people where they are—through legal clinics, support groups, holistic health services, creative workshops, and spaces to build joy and resilience. From School of Drag, an intergenerational program exploring the liberatory art of gender performance, to Desert Sisters and Gender Outlawz, peer-led groups that provide safety and solidarity, Fluxx cultivates connection in a world that often isolates. With a staff that is 85% QTBIPOC—leaders whose lived experiences inform every program—we create spaces of radical inclusion. Whether we’re hosting Queer Craft & Game Night or providing care through our Community Health Program, we are united in a single mission: to uplift, empower, and protect the most marginalized among us. Fluxx is more than an organization—we are a movement, rooted in love, resistance, and community care. We envision a Tucson where all people, especially those living at the intersection of multiple identities, have the tools, voice, and power to thrive.

Fluxx will use this grant to expand food access within the LGBTQ+ and QTBIPOC communities of Southern Arizona. Due to recent funding being cut, when possible, we provide nutritious meals and snacks at all of our programs—from support groups to creative workshops—recognizing that food security is foundational to healing, connection, and empowerment. These gatherings are often the only consistent source of nourishment for some of our participants, and we believe that feeding our community is an act of care and resistance.

Looking ahead, will continue to seek funding which will also support the development of the future Fluxx Cultural Center, which will include a community kitchen, café, and garden. These spaces will promote food sovereignty, nutrition education, and sustainable local agriculture, offering long-term solutions rooted in equity and access. We believe health is wealth, and through this grant, we’ll continue creating spaces where marginalized people are nourished—physically, emotionally, and culturally.

Friends of Marty Birdman

The mission of FOMB is to support, lift up, and elevate the children in the Balboa neighborhood. We accomplish this through the Center, a safe space for kids to come engage in social programs, educational and field trip opportunities, assistance with homework, and recreation. Even snacks and meals are given.Center is the only park solely designated for kids.

FOMB has wanted to begin a new program in conjunction with a senior living center also in the Balboa neighborhood. We want to start an intergenerational garden project. The benefits of cross-generational interaction, and gardening have been documented pretty extensively. It would be a benefit not only to the participants, but any additional vegetables or produce can be distributed in the neighborhood through the Center, which also has a full kitchen to produce Garden to table treats prepared by both the kids and the seniors.

I Am You 360

I Am You 360 provides customized programs and services to foster care and unhoused youth in Pima County with new full size hygiene donated according to age, gender, and ethnicity and refilled every 6 weeks to improve school attendance, academic success, decrease bullying, boost confidence, social and emotional wellness curriculum, and recently built Tucson's first energy efficient, affordable tiny homes for aged out foster care and unhoused 18-22. I Am You 360 believes in removing the bandaid to develop whole healed people to break generational cycles and sew our underserved back into the fabric of our community."

I Am You 360 advocates to fill the void of hygiene insecurities. Hygiene is a human basic need, an equal need just like food and housing. Hygiene is necessary to start your day, and our underserved youth deserve to have an even playing field. Providing these services reduces theft, judicial involvement, and recidivism rate. We will win!

ITZABOUTIME productions

Ted Warmbrand brought his family to town with a history of coop building in Iowa. And a Coop Song. This was late 1970s. He started a music column in the FC Newsletter. Soon became an original programmer for KXCI (""Music from the Living Loom"" )Getting a chance to bring a Vote For a Change concert with Holly Near and Ronnie Gilbert in 1983 he formed ITZABOUTIME productions, filling Tucson High to overflowing with the concert. Thus began over 40 years of SRO benefit concerts for peace and human rights of every kind.. For bigger shows we provided support. Including the Sanctuary concerts and the Concert for Civility after our Gabby Giffords was shot. Tucson got to hear Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, Pete Seeger Sweet Honey In the Rock , Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Charlie King, the San Francisco Mime Troupe and major artists from South Africa ,Australia, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Haiti and even Israel/ Palestine. The concert model Ted eventually developed required partnering with local activist groups to raise awareness and funds for them hosting free concerts with vegetarian meals, where programs had ads from supportive businesses and individuals and offering a giant raffle of donated items or a dollar a ticket. Meanwhile Ted took songs to picket lines, rallies, marches, festivals, his neighborhood fiestas, classrooms, meetings, gardens, started Tucson Labor Chorus (The Warblies?) and a Muslim/jewish PeaceWalk Band of Cousins (""Uncle Semite?"") .ITZABOUTIME! The goal remains: bring appropriate music to serve organizing efforts putting personal and planetary empathy into action"

This year three ITZABOUTIME goals stand out. The immediate: continue the free monthly Community Sings. demonstrating the beauty of the “folk process” where songs are flexible vehicles to meet changing times. Experiencing the power of spontaneous group singing as a step in building community especially when the songs are empathy agents. ITZABOUTIME shall continue supporting neighborhood cohesion with Barrio San Antonio's Annual Family Festa, helping fund good food and good music...We've also begun a documentary project. In 1960, the Arizona Legislature passed a law requiring public employees to sign an anti-communist loyalty oath to be paid. Four teachers, all non communists, refused to sign. They were part of a monthly gathering called the Tucson Folksingers (TFS). .A support community grew and SCOTUS declared the law unconstitutional The story of how singing together can forge communities of conscience, caring and courage deserves sharing. With Coop cooperation let's share it.

Northern Jaguar Project

Since 2002, the binational Northern Jaguar Project (NJP) has worked to preserve and recover the world's northernmost population of the jaguar, its unique natural habitats, and native wildlife found under its protection as a flagship, keystone, and umbrella species. Based in Tucson, AZ, we participate in many outreach events in the Tucson region, educating the local community about jaguars and their presence in Arizona. Protecting the northernmost breeding population of jaguars in Sonora, Mexico, ensures a population of jaguars in Arizona and Mexico, now and in the future. The centerpiece of our approach has been the creation and guardianship of the 56,000-acre Northern Jaguar Reserve, which boasts the highest number of northern jaguar sightings in recent years, including females and their cubs. Jaguars in this region are critically endangered, with an estimated population of 80 to 120 individuals. Located 125 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border, the reserve and surrounding ranches feature an unparalleled mix of natural communities. Since 2007, through our Viviendo con Felinos ® program, we have worked with ranchers in the buffer zone surrounding the reserve. Participating ranchers sign contracts not to hunt, poison, bait, trap, or disturb wildlife, including the area’s four felines – bobcat, ocelot, mountain lion, and jaguar – and the deer and javelina they prey on. We place motion-triggered cameras on their properties, and they receive economic incentives for feline photographs. Furthermore, NJP collaborates with local NGO’s, schools, researchers, governments, and communities near where jaguars live to increase our conservation impact.

NJP would use the funds to purchase professional tabling materials. Such as a branded 10 x 10 popup tent, folding chairs, a table or two, and an iPad for donations and merchandise sales. These materials would allow us to do more outreach in the Tucson area and present ourselves more professionally, spreading the word about protecting the charismatic jaguar, which in turn protects so many other species unique to the Sonoran Desert region.

Pima Community College Foundation ARC Resource Center & Food Pantry

The Pima Community College ARC Resource Center & Food Pantry supports PCC students by addressing campus food insecurity issues and other basic need deficiencies. In addition, the ARC focuses on initiatives supporting and advocating for marginalized populations at PCC, including refugee students, veterans, LGBTQ+, adult learners, low-income students, single parents, DACA/Hispanic students, and more. The ARC serves as a Learning Lab for students through practical and experiential learning-- promoting civic engagement among students and their community. This model provides an accessible, college-wide opportunity for students to extend classroom learning theory into practice. The ARC Learning Lab primarily engages students in the PCC Social Services Program and ASU Social Work Program; however, it also provides opportunities for students in other disciplines. Each semester, the ARC records over 2600 student (and employee) encounters and provides over 12,700 pounds of food, plus hygiene supplies. Students who utilize the ARC are 20% more likely to pass their classes with a C or higher. 95% of ARC users reported that the resources provided by the ARC had a positive impact on their academic performance. 70% of students reported that their academic performance at PCC would be negatively impacted without the ARC. One Pima student stated: “It has definitely taken the stress off of having to spend more of my money on food. Usually towards the end of the month it would get hard to buy the things I needed. It’s nice to know I have a place I can get food even when money is tight.”" The majority of PCC students live in food deserts, without access to fruits and vegetables. Food pantries, by necessity, focus on stocking shelf-stable items. Such items are often high in sodium and preservatives and do not provide health-conscious choices for students.

The ARC would utilize these funds to connect with and purchase fresh produce from local farmers/agricultural distributors, such as Iskashitaa Refugee Network, High Energy Agriculture, or Cochise Family Farm. These fresh produce items will provide healthy and more balanced meal options for students and employees who utilize the ARC. (The PCC ARC is a program under the Pima Foundation's 501(c)3.

Poder Casas Moviles

We are a Tucson-based group of Mobile Home Park residents and our allies fighting for affordable, healthy, and sustainable housing. We do this by Providing Emergency Eviction Assistance, Free Eviction Legal Services, and Resource Navigation. We also advocate for residents' protections and rights. These efforts support families to secure their housing and prevent evictions, which also secures access to being able to afford and prepare food. Food security and housing security are intrinsically tied. At the heart of our dream is for residents or Community Land Trusts to cooperatively own the land. Collective ownership is the most secure path to high quality, environmentally sustainable, permanently affordable housing. All of our eviction defense efforts build towards our broader goal of expanding cooperatively owned mobile home parks in the Tucson, AZ region. Across the country, residents of mobile home parks and manufactured housing communities are purchasing their parks and operating them as cooperatives, taking the profit motive out of housing and leading to secure and sustainable housing. Evictions are dramatically lower in these parks, costs are more stable, and cooperatively owned parks are more likely to invest in sustainability initiatives such as collective solar panels, EV charging stations, and community gardens. We strive for Tucson to be a leader in mobile home park resident ownership. We seek to support mobile home park residents and local nonprofits and community land trusts to purchase mobile and manufactured housing communities. We are working for housing outside the landlord-tenant model.

Cooperative Initiatives: These funds would support the heart of our dream - to build up Tucson as a leader in resident ownership of manufactured housing communities, including: Building awareness on resident ownership among mobile home park and manufactured housing community residents about the possibilities of resident ownership; Training local practitioners to provide technical support for resident ownership conversions; and working with local lenders to offer financing necessary for resident purchases. Food Access and Hunger Prevention: All of our work toward resident ownership and eviction prevention is also the work of food access. When we keep families in their homes, we are not only preventing evictions, but also preventing hunger. Environmental Sustainability: Communities owned by residents are far more likely to invest in sustainability. Residents who know their housing is secure can and do invest in weatherization of homes, community gardens, and install community solar panels.

Splinter Art and Community Fund

Splinter Art and Community Fund (DBA Splinter Collective, or Splinter) is a 501c3 non-profit membership based organization and event space. It is housed in a 100 year old art studio warehouse and located in Cukson aka Tucson, Arizona. We center the artistic expression, voices and experiences of folks who are systematically disenfranchised and historically absent from the centers of power. We culture make, curate artistic events and provide an accessible space for community events, liberatory art practices, and social justice organizing. Our Board of Directors and executive team are 100% comprised of people who have various intersecting marginalized identities. These include specifically Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, Disabled, and neurodivergent folks, and folks with lived experience of sex work, housing insecurity, incarceration and more. We acknowledge our place in space and the complex history of exploitation that is settler colonialism. We provide mutual aid to our neighbors who are unsheltered or otherwise impacted by the housing crisis and oppose the forces of gentrification. By nurturing community building across divisions and cultivating deeply representative leadership, Splinter strives to promote partnership, inclusivity, diversity, and abolition.

We will use award funds to support our mutual aid efforts, specifically hosting Tuesday night community dinners that allow our neighbors, both housed and unhoused, to break bread together and connect across class divisions. We also use these community dinners to distribute harm reduction supplies, hygiene and other needed items to the community. Our community dinners are run by volunteers but need a small amount of money ($50-80) each week to help provide food and other forms of nourishment. Additionally, we are in the process of opening up a thrift store. This shop, called Splinter Threads is a gender expansive thrift store that focuses on climate resilience via upcycling and offering opportunities for the community to learn how to mend and recycle clothing to combat the waste of fast fashion. We would use part of these funds to support this development.

Tucson for Everyone, Yes in My Back Yard

We believe food, clothing, shelter, access, and medicine comprise the core necessities of life. Whether they can or cannot be covered by a household's income is the determining line between struggling in working poverty or breaking the cycle to achieve prosperity. Tucson for Everyone focuses on the shelter and access (aka. transportation) components, which we see as related issues. For shelter, our largest accomplishments have been our work on ADU awareness, which led to Tucson's 2020 legalization of ADUs, and Arizona's 2025 legalization. For transportation, our largest accomplishment was being a founding member of the Fare Free Transit coalition in 2022, and having raised awareness of transportation as an important issue in our community leading to Tucson having the largest and longest-enacted fare free transit system in the United States. Note: Tucson for Everyone was started independently, but Yes in My Back Yard is a 501(c)3 we've partnered with for our projects requiring fiscal sponsorship. I have supplied their FEIN and address above, although the scope of the project below is entirely within Arizona and the work done in Tucson."

Arizona standardized the process for building Accessory Dwelling Units—smaller houses on the same property as larger houses—with a 2024 law that took effect this year. For many years our group has been ardent supporters of this option, which we see as an incredibly promising way to build and make housing more affordable. Housing built this way is kept in hands of local residents, and once built overwhelmingly is used for families with multiple generations to live on the same property. We ask to use award funds on a specific project to publicize and clarify the new laws, and investigate methods this type of housing construction could integrate with other existing community efforts like work on land trusts (a type of cooperative), workforce education in trades, and patterns of urban agriculture.

Tucson Village Farm

Tucson Village Farm (TVF) is a seed-to-table educational urban farm that reconnects youth and families to a healthy food system, teaches them how to grow and prepare fresh food, and empowers them to make healthy life choices. TVF serves thousands of young people annually through immersive, hands-on programs rooted in agriculture, nutrition, culinary literacy, sustainability, and leadership. We serve the Tucson and surrounding community by cultivating lifelong skills and confidence in the garden, the kitchen, and beyond. Youth dig, plant, cook, harvest, and share real food, learning where it comes from and how it nourishes their bodies and communities. Our offerings include school field trips, our thriving 4-H Healthy Living Ambassador program with over 200 active teens, weekly high school farm classes, cooking workshops, a community market, a wide variety of family friendly events, and over 30 weeks of summer camps. We engage learners of all ages and backgrounds through a wide variety of experiences that are joyful, empowering, and deeply meaningful. Our work addresses food insecurity, health inequities, and disconnection from land and community by growing not only food, but also relationships, self-worth, and a sense of belonging. In a world that often moves too fast and eats too poorly, Tucson Village Farm provides a rooted, inspiring space for youth to build confidence, gain life skills, and grow into leaders who care. We’re growing the next generation of healthy eaters, thoughtful leaders, and environmental stewards—one seed, one child, and one meal at a time.

Just two weeks ago Tucson Village Farm lost critical funding for our ""Growing Forward"" field trip program, which serves close to 8,000 youth annually. We were notified at 4:45pm that all funding would stop at 5pm. If awarded, these funds will directly support the continuation of this program, ensuring that low-income students can attend at no cost. Our ""Growing Forward"" field-trip provides hands-on learning experiences where youth explore sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and environmental stewardship. These field trips are designed to empower students with the knowledge and skills to make healthy food choices while fostering a deeper connection to the land. By removing financial barriers, we ensure that all children, regardless of income, have access to these transformative experiences, and that no child is turned away. This initiative directly supports food access, agricultural sustainability, and allows us to plant the seeds for a healthier, more equitable future for the next generation.

University of Arizona Foundation for the benefit of Cooper Center for Environmental Learning

The Cooper Center for Environmental Learning is a “living classroom” in Tucson’s desert foothills, run by the University of Arizona (UA) College of Education in partnership with Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). Each year, thousands of students visit the Cooper Center for hands-on, outdoor science lessons designed to inspire an enduring love and respect for the natural world. The Cooper Center also gives every UA Pre-K-8 education major real-world practice working with young learners and serves as a setting for published research on how kids learn in and about nature. Operating since 1964 and today funded almost entirely by grassroots donors and private grants, the Cooper Center, aka “Camp Cooper,” now often hosts the grandkids of its earliest students, welcoming a third generation to its 150,000 alumni around the world.

Our goal is to inspire the children of Southern Arizona to live more lightly and sustainably in our Sonoran Desert community and beyond. The focus of our field trip programs is Title I schools, serving children and families in poverty. The award would be used to cover the costs for two classes of students (50-60 kids) from a Title I school with a Camp Cooper experience during the 2025-2026 school year. Funding would cover student fees, school bus transportation, staffing, and materials. Food Conspiracy Co-op would be invited to join us for the field trip and directly engage with the students, teachers, and parent chaperones. This would be an incredible opportunity to include food and nutrition in the environmental learning experience for these students.

Watershed Management Group

Watershed Management Group empowers Tucson communities to create climate-resilient, food producing, equitably shaded neighborhoods through hands-on education and grassroots action. Our programs focus on water harvesting, native food systems, and riparian restoration that address urgent challenges such as food access, urban heat, and watershed health. At our Living Lab and Learning Center, a registered USDA People’s Garden, we provide accessible learning opportunities on how to live “hydro-locally” by using harvested rainwater for everything from drinking water to growing desert-adapted foods. The site features native edible trees, composting toilets, and abundant pollinator habitat. We use this space to share knowledge, resources, and to help our community build deeper relationships with place. We believe that restoration is a process of reciprocal healing. This value guides our mission as we have worked to build cooling rain gardens with dozens of K-12 schools, offer free native edible plant workshops, and help connect people of all ages to our creeks and rivers through creek walks, clean-ups, and restoration workshops. In partnership with IRC’s New Roots Farm and Literacy Connects, we installed a community rain garden to reduce flooding, provide shade, and grow native edible plants. Our interns worked alongside farmers and gardeners to create a shared space for learning and resilience. At San Xavier Co-op Farm, we joined in planting mesquite trees and exchanging knowledge about traditional foodways, seed sovereignty, and sustainability. WMG helps communities restore relationships with water, rivers, food, culture, and one another, nurturing a just, sustainable future rooted in care and connection.

We will utilize the award funds to expand our Native Edible Foods initiative, through free workshops at WMG’s Living Lab and out at community events. Events at the Living Lab include Family Saturdays, designed for kids and their families, as well as Sustainable Desert Living Classes, designed for adults. Through community events we can engage a larger, more diverse group of participants, particularly from underserved communities, including food deserts and areas with low tree canopy. This support will breathe new life into our Sustainable Desert Living Classes. We’ll be able to organize and facilitate more educational events, including workshops on identifying, harvesting, and processing Sonoran Desert Native Edible plants. These expanded offerings will provide hands-on skills in foraging, deepen community involvement in local food systems, and strengthen our initiatives by training the community to grow, share, and sustain food and shade in their neighborhoods.

Youth On Their Own (YOTO)

During the 2023–2024 school year, more than 2,900 students in Pima County experienced homelessness. With daily survival a struggle, staying in school becomes even harder. Teens experiencing homelessness are four times more likely to drop out, and adults without a diploma are 346% more likely to experience homelessness—trapping them in a cycle of poverty. But education can disrupt that cycle.

Since 1986, Youth On Their Own (YOTO) has helped Tucson and Pima County’s students experiencing homelessness earn their diplomas and build brighter futures. Each year, YOTO supports over 1,500 students across 100+ local schools, providing what youth say they need to succeed: 1. Direct financial incentives to attend school via an earned academic stipend and other monetary support; 2. Meeting youths’ basic needs by providing free food, hygiene items, school supplies, and more at YOTO’s Mini Mall pantry and through weekly school deliveries; 3. Guidance and consistent support from a caring adult. YOTO guides youth in middle school, high school, and beyond to help young people pursue their chosen pathways for self-reliance. As a grassroots organization, we believe in the power of community to help remove barriers to education. Since our founding, 20,000–25,000 youth have participated in YOTO—many now thriving as nurses, teachers, chefs, and more in Southern Arizona. And we know our program works! In 2024, 93% of YOTO seniors graduated, proving that when youth receive the support they need, they can overcome tremendous challenges and build successful futures. A small investment in their education today compounds over time!

For many housing-insecure youth, staying in school feels impossible. Basic needs become daily struggles and education often takes a backseat to survival. YOTO exists to change that. YOTO’s Mini Mall helps address food insecurity/social challenges by providing free essentials like food, period products, school supplies, and household items to youth experiencing homelessness. Since these young people are on their own through no fault of their own, they must secure necessities themselves. The Mini Mall, stocked primarily through community donations, ensures they have access to these critical resources. A $2,500 Cooperative Community Fund grant will help YOTO purchase food items when inventory runs low, ensuring the pantry remains stocked. By meeting students’ basic needs, YOTO helps them focus on their education rather than daily survival. Supporting YOTO’s Mini Mall not only combats youth’s basic needs insecurity today but also helps combat future insecurity by supporting education as a means to self-sufficiency.

Youth Outdoor Experience dba Ironwood Tree Experience

This summer marks the 20th anniversary of Ironwood Tree Experience, an organization dedicated to providing Tucson youth with meaningful opportunities to connect with nature and their community. We serve over a thousand youth, teachers, and families annually. Our mission is to foster healthy, resilient communities by engaging young people in environmental stewardship. Over the years, the world has changed dramatically, but our mission has only become more vital. As we continue to navigate the lasting impacts of a global pandemic, a growing climate crisis, and political instability, our commitment to building a resilient Sonoran Desert community with youth involvement remains unwavering. How do we achieve this? We listen to the youth we serve. As the organization matures, so do the young people involved in our programs. With a focus on teens, we offer internship opportunities that prioritize youth voices, empowering them to tell their stories and share what matters most to them. Through these internships, they learn to express their concerns about their communities and the environment while helping us shape our programming to meet their needs. Additionally, we provide professional development for educators and offer both middle and high school programming, constantly seeking input from young people on how to serve them best. One of the most consistent results of our work is that youth gain a deeper connection to their community, fostering a sense of belonging and responsibility that will serve them—and Tucson—well for years to come.

As the world’s climate continues to change, our mission remains constant. We address local and global challenges like climate change, nature deficit disorder, climate anxiety, and environmental sustainability by offering meaningful educational experiences for young people and teachers. These programs focus on instilling hope, a deep connection to place, and a sense of empowerment. To inspire action for a just, healthy, and resilient world, we first help people form a connection to their home, Tucson, and Southern Arizona. We deepen this connection by highlighting the region’s rich history, diverse culture, strong local businesses, and unique biodiversity.

Funding from the CCF would allow us to cover the essential costs of environmental sustainability programming for youth and teachers, especially as federal support becomes increasingly uncertain. We would be honored to receive funds from the Food Conspiracy Co-op, a business that strengthens the community by sourcing locally grown products and modeling sustainable practices.