Seed Grant

Each year, Seed Grants are awarded to outstanding students and graduates who are spreading the ripple effect of health and happiness in their communities and beyond.  We are proud and excited to support the extraordinary members of the IIN community in their efforts to make healthy living more accessible for everyone.  

That’s why for 2012 we’ve made the Seed Grant program bigger and better! There will be even more opportunities for students and grads to receive grants to move their projects forward. We’ll launch the new program at the IIN Mega Conference in LA, March 3-4.  This will give you plenty of time to brainstorm!

Help us celebrate 2011’s six winners:

Alissa Bilfield
Solon, OH
The Cookbook Project’s Local Leader Program

The Cookbook Project is a nonprofit dedicated to teaching youth worldwide about sustainable consumption, nutrition, hygiene, food prep skills and food culture appreciation through interactive workshops.

Alissa will use the Seed Grant to develop the Cookbook Project’s new Local Leaders Program. The goal of the program is to create a network of trained volunteers around the world who will run Cookbook Project workshops of their own for local, disenfranchised youth. This is a key step towards widening the global reach of the Cookbook Project so more children can benefit from this impactful program.

With the Seed Grant, Alissa will be able to develop a Cookbook Project website that will:

• Host an online application for the Local Leaders Program to find strong participants
• Run distance-learning training for members of the program to assure quality leadership

Samantha Lebeau
Greenville, RI
Revive the Roots Foundation

The Revive the Roots Foundation is a non-profit organization that takes on land restoration projects to build local and sustainable solutions for food production and distribution. Through this grassroots work, they are enhancing community involvement in sustainability and are working with state and federal agencies to develop a self-reliant and ecologically sound food system.

Recently given 16 acres of old farm land by their town land trust (now known as Mowry Gardens), Revive the Roots will use the Integrative Nutrition Seed Grant to support their world-wide vision to ensure that our land, local as well as global, remains livable for humans and wildlife into the indefinite future.

Integrative Nutrition Seed Grant funding will go toward:

• A farm stand and meeting center that will offer produce from Mowry Gardens farm and other local growers
• Building trails throughout their forest garden (an intentional, food producing ecosystem) open for hiking and meditation, while restoring the natural habitat and wildlife
• Planting of a grazing field open for the public to enjoy
• A Harvest Festival to celebrate local health and community building

Laurie Young
Reston, VA
NutriCurious

NutriCurious’s mission is to inspire curiosity and excitement about health and nutrition, primarily among the special needs community. Laurie’s motivation was born out of nurturing and supporting her own son through development issues, leading him to become a happy 8-year-old who is still working on social challenges, but communicates energetically. So far their focus is on working with families who have children with Down Syndrome or that are on the autism spectrum.

In NutriCurious’s group health coaching sessions, they focus on adding in healthy foods, finding enjoyable movement practices, and learning to slow down and create balance. Along with nutrition and health coaching, participants in NutriCurious’s programs also enjoy cooking demos and movement/stress-reduction sessions—all in one package.

With Integrative Nutrition’s Seed Grant Laurie will be able to:

• Cover costs associated with custom-designing programs for those with special needs
• Fully launch NutriCurious so the ripple effect of health and happiness can be extended to the special needs community

Chelsea Jowell
Boulder, CO
Back to Basics Kitchen

Back to Basics Kitchen works to keep the community and environment healthy through farm to table catering, weekly meal services, healthy cooking classes and hourly kitchen rentals for like-minded sustainable food businesses. Their business model focuses on being a culinary hub in their community for healthy, locally sourced food.

Chelsea’s next move is to develop online meal ordering/tracking software that can be shared with others across the country to help spread the culinary hub model. Her plan is to make this software free of charge to nonprofits, and potentially will require a small fee for other businesses.

Seed Grant funding will allow Back to Basics Kitchen to:

• Get their healthy, online meal service fully up and running to help busy families stay nourished with meals made from local produce
• Begin distributing this software and guidance to budding culinary hubs around the country!

Lindsey Witmer
Washington, DC
MyOmBody

MyOmBody brings holistic health to the palm of your hand. Lindsey’s multifunctional app will prompt users to track their food intake, body functions and health-related behaviors over time. Through this collection of personal data, MyOmBody analyzes how various factors influence your wellbeing—from exercise, to relationships, to food and supplements. Then the app makes correlations to help determine what works for you.

This cutting edge app will also enable users to connect with a Health Coach for an initial consultation. MyOmBody’s trusted Health Coach network will be exclusively made up of Integrative Nutrition certified Health Coaches! The app also allows users to share the data collected by the app with their Health Coaches, making it easy for coaches and clients to communicate about what’s working and what’s not. Learn more about how MyOmBody works here.

With Seed Grant funding, MyOmBody will:

• Enable users to print or email their graphs and food logs to their Integrative Nutrition certified Health Coach
• Take the health coaching process and relationship to the next level through ongoing tracking of client activity
• Create an online version of the app to expand the app’s impact by making it accessible to those without a specific smartphone

Rachel Tahnee Johnson
Boise, ID
Homeless To Wholeness: The Boise Green House Project

Rachel’s mission is to bring local, organic and sustainable food to homeless and poverty-stricken families in Boise, ID. She already feeds 100 mouths per week through her friend's nonprofit, and envisions being able to provide even more people with organic produce. Going further, she wants to help put them on a path toward healthy-living and nurturing self-care through a holistic homeless community outreach program.

With Integrative Nutrition’s Seed Grant, Rachel will build a greenhouse that she and her family, along with members of the homeless community, will maintain. This will allow many more families to put nourishing food on their plates and help crowd out the processed food commonly provided at shelters. In addition to organic, nutritious food, Rachel will also begin helping women and children transition from shelter life to a healthy household by providing guidance with self-care, budgeting, healthy cooking, food preparation and gardening.

With Seed Grant funding, Rachel will be able to:

• Build a greenhouse for growing organic fruits and vegetables
• Feed more than 100 people per week wholesome foods
• Help women and children to transition healthfully out of the shelter
• Build a website to engage the public through videos of their progress

We’ll be accepting applications for our next round of Seed Grants in early 2012. We're excited to continue helping our community bring their incredible ideas to life! Stay tuned!