This is the sixth installment in a blog series featuring the ten recipients of our 2023 Muck Boot Chapter Capacity Grant program. Through this year’s grant program, the chapters received fundraising training and support to help them build long-term financial sustainability.

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In 2022 and in 2023, the West Michigan Young Farmers Chapter received the Chapter Capacity Grant to support the launch of their West Michigan BIPOC Farmer Land Fund to support Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color with securing access to land and infrastructure. In the Grand Rapids area, finding available and affordable land to farm, especially in urban areas, is difficult and expensive as land prices continue to skyrocket. In light of the results of the 2022 Census of Agriculture, released by USDA earlier this month, that show that the number of farmers of color, particularly Black and Indigenous farmers, has decreased, resourcing BIPOC farmers so they can access land is more crucial than ever.

In February 2024 the chapter made their goal after two years of fundraising! The chapter anticipates making their first awards to farmers this year. You can donate to the fund here.

With last year’s grant, the chapter created a logo, built a website, and paid artists to help them develop graphics for their social media and other communications. This year, their goal for the grant program is to figure out how to financially resource their fund in the long-term. Through the development support they received through the grant program, the chapter was trained on how to prospect and received tools like a pitch deck template and letter of interest template to aid in fundraising.

The chapter has recently incorporated another local food justice project, Power to the People 616, a grassroots, women of color-led collective that runs a freedom school camp for BIPOC children in the summer. A focus of freedom school is introducing BIPOC children to agriculture as a viable career who wouldn’t be exposed to it otherwise. Through the Chapter Capacity Grant program, the chapter was able to identify two grants to apply for to support the chapter’s work in West Michigan.

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Chapters of the National Young Farmers Coalition are the purpose for and partners in our mission to shift power and change policy to equitably resource our new generation of working farmers. Check out our website to see existing Chapters in your area and email us at Chapters@youngfarmers.org to discuss starting a Chapter.