Trellis for Tomorrow receives a $25,000 grant award from the Foxwynd Foundation to support youth development, food security, and environmental sustainability.
Phoenixville, PA NOVEMBER 2024 – Trellis for Tomorrow is honored to partner with the Foxwynd Foundation and is grateful to receive a $25,000 grant award. This funding, provided through the Foxwynd Foundation’s Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), will be used to support Trellis’ SEED Skills program. Trellis will commit all financial gifts donated to the annual campaign, from now until the end of the year, to match this support, bringing exponential impact to the grant award and the SEED Skills Program.
“We are honored to support Trellis for Tomorrow through the SEED Skills Matching Gift grant. At the Foxwynd Foundation, we believe in the power of equipping individuals with the skills and opportunities they need to create positive change in their communities. We are excited to see the transformative impact this grant will help achieve.” — Pamela Villagra, Executive Director, Foxwynd Foundation
The SEED Skills program (SEED) is a youth development program for adolescents aged 12-18 living in the historically disenfranchised communities of Pottstown, Phoenixville, and Spring City. Youth are engaged in garden-based activities designed to build life and work skills and foster leadership and personal agency while also improving food security in their own neighborhoods. SEED is an “earn while you learn” program that allows youth participants to build workplace readiness skills while working together to manage organic gardens and distribute their produce through equitable, community-building business models. Since the program’s inception, more than 24,000 pounds of organic produce has been distributed to hundreds of households by youth participants.
“We are privileged to have the support of the Foxwynd Foundation and their Board of Trustees. We are hopeful that the community will rise to the occasion and match the support provided to SEED Skills youth. Investing in our community’s youth not only empowers them as the leaders of tomorrow but has a direct impact on us all.” – Jennifer Anderson, Executive Director, Trellis for Tomorrow
Now in its 21st year of service, Trellis for Tomorrow provides highly impactful programming at the intersection of youth workforce readiness, food justice, and environmental sustainability for communities in the Greater Philadelphia Region. Evolving into a regional leader in developing sustainable local food systems, Trellis will have delivered paid work experiences to 75 youth, managed 28 active local gardens, and provided more than 40,000 pounds of organic produce to food-insecure individuals and families this year alone. Since its inception, Trellis has impacted over 1 million meals for households in the region by donating over a quarter of a million pounds of fresh, nutrient-dense, organic produce. Additionally, by utilizing community-centered gardens as living classrooms, Trellis provides hands-on, experiential programs for historically underrepresented youth – programs that inspire participants to become positive agents of change in their own lives and to build healthy, sustainable, secure communities around them.
