A week or so ago, Mahala Love applied for the Slow Food Negroni Week Fund grant. I will start by saying I love writing grants!. I love the freedom to let my mind wander through all the ideas Mahala Love and our partners discuss, the plans that have been created and then attempt to pare them down into manageable and logistically sound paths to be constrained within a specific set of funding goals. Perhaps, I am a bit of a nerd in that respect.
Once I have written a grant, I feel complete with the process. True, I occasionally check the email to see if there is any word, but I feel very satisfied with knowing that the path forward has been laid. The details have been thought through and I now know just what we need to make it happen. Perhaps we will be fortunate enough to receive the funding and can now focus simply on getting the work done. If not, I know we will move forward, it will just take longer to find the proper resources, and the phases will be slower or smaller. We will still plant a food forest, but will plant seeds and seedlings versus trees. We will still offer seeds to the families, and invite neighboring folks to our teaching garden, there will just be less varieties and offerings to start. But Mahala Love is focused and determined and know we will reach our goals to share in food security with our neighbors both here in the US and in South Africa.
Our partners in Limpopo, have also applied for the same grant. Themba has applied to further the progress of the seed bank and the efforts there to catalog, collect, and share seeds among the community. The two grants have some overlap in community and sharing of resources. Mahala Love staff will be attending the Seed Festival in September of this year and can’t wait to see and share more seeds with the folks in Limpopo.
So, as always, we welcome your prayers, good vibes, happy thoughts and ideas! And we will continue to work to make changes in our food systems and provide our neighbors and ourselves with healthy and nutrient dense food and build community in which to share it.
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Mahala Love 