Last November, we announced the latest round of Action Awards – a mini grant program providing ten $5,000 grants plus technical assistance open to SF residents, SF-based businesses, and community groups interested in bringing free, recurring community events to public spaces in San Francisco.

After reading through dozens of applications from movie nights to community farming days, we finally settled on the following ten grantees. We can’t wait to help bring these free events to public spaces across the city. Keep an eye out for more details on these events and the next round of Action Awards by signing up for our newsletter below or following us on social media (@sfparksalliance).

Foodwise

Foodwise will host free cooking demonstrations to teach shoppers to cook with local ingredients while highlighting diverse Bay Area culinary professionals. Two Saturdays per month, Foodwise will gather local chefs, cooks, nutritionists, and cookbook authors as they share their food knowledge and demonstrate recipes using ingredients from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market.

Friends of Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (FOSOTA)

FOSOTA’s “Pizza Farm!” will relaunch public programming at SFUSD’s McAteer High School campus community farm in a series of events featuring pizza making, performances, gardening, and education about sustainable culinary arts. With the farm’s newly restored wood-fired adobe pizza oven at the ready, the four gatherings will bring people together in community to “get cooking” in the service of stewardship, knowledge sharing, camaraderie, and farm-to-table sustainability.

Friends & Neighbors

Friends & Neighbors, a creative gathering space in the Inner Richmond, will host a monthly movie night showcasing San Francisco-centric documentaries, shorts, and films. They’ll highlight local filmmakers to foster community engagement and celebrate our city’s diverse narratives.

Nature in the City

Nature in the City’s Youth in Action for Nature project aims to create synergies between two Nature in the City (NTC) programs: their long-standing Habitat Stewardship program and the new Youth Environment Stewards (YES) program. Local young people and students will get their hands dirty taking care of native habitats and learn about career opportunities by networking with environmental advocates in San Francisco.

Outer Sunset Neighbors

Outer Sunset Neighbors will clean up and beautify their commercial block at Taraval and 46th Avenue and host events that benefit local merchants, improve the shared spaces where neighbors connect, and showcase local artists and performers. With their Action Award, they’ll revive the gardens on the block, host a Taraval Art Trot with local artists and merchants, and host a block party featuring local musicians.

Quilt Magazine

Quilt Magazine will host free art classes across different forms of media and creation so underprivileged and underrepresented communities can gain hands-on artistic and entrepreneurial experience.

Hawk Creek Farm

Located in the Mission Terrace/Excelsior district of San Francisco, Hawk Creek Farm will host a series of family-friendly community farm work days. All three events will feature a farmer-led planting project, a guest artist workshop, and a shared community meal.

SFAI Legacy Foundation & Archive

SFAI Legacy Foundation & Archive will host a series of walking tours around downtown San Francisco, sharing the hidden histories behind art and artists in the city. Tours will be organized by the archivists of the SFAI Legacy Foundation & Archive, a new non-profit organization located downtown that was founded after the closure of the San Francisco Art Institute to preserve the 150-year history of SFAI and the story of art in San Francisco.

SF Youth Theatre

San Francisco Youth Theatre will host four weeks of “Story Theatre” for children in Garfield Park in SF’s Mission District. SFYT’s Spanish-bilingual theatre artists will provide two free classes to the public each week, using both English and Spanish language activities to engage children and their families.

Visitacion Valley Greenway GOAL Program

Visitacion Valley’s Leland Avenue Commercial Corridor has seventeen rain gardens. Aside from five at Schiller Plaza that were recently cleaned up by community volunteers, they are currently uncared for and filled with overgrown weeds and river rocks which hinder maintenance. This group will use their Action Award to clean up the rain gardens, plant drought resistant native plants, and host celebrations at the start and end of the project.

Big thanks to the Office of Economic and Workforce Development for funding this program.