Berkeleyside
– by Bayer Fund
Six nonprofits get a boost from Bayer
From meals to housing to paid internships and more, Bayer community investments advance resiliency in West Berkeley.
Bayer will award nearly $425,000 in investments over the next three years to six Berkeley-area community organizations focused on supporting the resiliency of the West Berkeley community where the pharmaceutical company operates.
These awards are the second cycle of funding that Bayer has made as part of its 30-year development agreement with the City of Berkeley, which includes a $33.1 million community benefits investment.
“We are proud to make significant contributions to six high-impact community organizations,” said Tina Self, senior vice president and site head at Bayer Pharmaceuticals’ Berkeley campus. “Bayer is deeply committed to the long-term health and success of the Berkeley community.”
Together Bayer and the City of Berkeley convened a selection committee composed of community leaders and Bayer employees. From a total of 40 applicants, the committee chose six organizations to receive community investment funds. The development agreement directs funds to be distributed equally across the themes of health equity, economic resiliency, and climate action. Each award spans three years, and the committee convenes annually to assess the awardees’ performance.
The recipient organizations plan to do the following with the three-year funding.
In the Climate Action category:
- Dandelion Kitchen: Serve 100,000 meals and divert 25 tons of fresh produce from landfills.
- Waterside Workshops: Create 80 year-long paid internships to learn bicycle mechanics.
In the Economic Resilience category:
- Girls Garage: Provide free design and construction training programs for girls and gender-expansive youth.
- Homeless Action Center: Help 90 unhoused residents qualify for public benefits.
In the Health Equity category:
- House of Loving Hands: Provide hotel accommodations for survivors of domestic violence.
- Women’s Daytime Drop-in Center: Provide case management and housing assistance for 40 unhoused families to obtain permanent supportive housing.
The organizations selected in the second cycle represent a mix of returning awardees and groups new to the effort. One of the new organizations, Dandelion Kitchen, is a volunteer-based nonprofit that prepares single-serving vegetarian meals for food-insecure residents. They focus on using high-quality, fresh ingredients that would otherwise be sent to landfills, such as ripe fruit with some bruising.
“In our first nine months, we made 15,000 meals from over 5 tons of recovered food,” said Dandelion Kitchen co-founder Rob Biniaz. “With this multi-year support from Bayer, we are poised to expand our production and distribution capacity to 100,000 meals over the next three years. That level of growth is a tremendous boost for a small organization like ours!”
The 30-year term of the development agreement means that, in total, there will be 10 funding cycles. The next application process will launch in 2027.
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This story is written and sponsored by Bayer Fund. Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer in the U.S., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the communities where Bayer customers and employees live and work by providing funding for food and nutrition, education, and health and wellness projects. For more information visit https://www.fund.bayer.us.
Read the full article at Berkeleyside.