The Community Choice Grant was awarded to Homesteads for Hope, a community garden for adults with disabilities located in Rochester, N.Y.
In celebration of its 50th anniversary in the United States, Kubota grows its Kubota Hometown Proud community grant program sixfold in its second year, awarding $600,000 in grants to deserving communities across the country.
"Kubota Hometown Proud" — which encourages cities, towns, municipalities and nonprofit organizations to partner with their local Kubota dealership and apply for consideration — launched a call-for-entries in April and Kubota selected its five regional grant winners in May.
Each regional winner is awarded $100,000 to support their community revitalization project. Then, all five community projects were put up for a public vote to determine one lucky community that would receive an additional $100,000 with the program's "Community Choice Grant," which ultimately went to Homesteads for Hope, a community garden for adults with disabilities located in Rochester, N.Y.
"For 50 years, our iconic orange equipment has been helping hard-working Americans maintain their communities and enhance their overall way of life, from projects in rural landscapes, to those in urban cityscapes," said Todd Stucke, Kubota senior vice president, marketing, product support and strategic projects.
"This year the Kubota Hometown Proud grant program saw almost 900 applicants, from nearly every state in the country. That's why we are incredibly honored to increase our investment in the Kubota Hometown Proud grant program in honor of our anniversary and give back to more communities and dealers who helped shape who we are today. We hope our equipment will assist in bringing each winner's vision to life and serve each hometown community for many years to come."
The 2022 Kubota Hometown Proud Grant Program winners include:
Northern and Community Choice Winner: Homesteads for Hope's Community Farm
Homesteads for Hope is a 55-acre community farm and intentional community that breaks down barriers with programs that use "nature's classroom" to teach adults with disabilities important life skills and how to work real jobs.
Kubota is proud to award one of its 2022 Kubota Hometown Proud grants to Homesteads for Hope, where the grant will be used to expand its Social Garden Program for those with more challenging needs and mobility-based disabilities, double its 80-plot community garden and the program's impact and renovate the estate home with new doors and windows to weatherproof the main program spaces for year-round use.
Western Winner: Food Bank of Monterey County's 5-Acre Farm and Kids Food Fix
The Food Bank of Monterey County currently serves 160,000 individuals each month, more than half of them are children. The premise of "5-Acre Farm and Kids Food Fix" puts children at the center of a hands-on learning experience and uses healthy food to engage all aspects of the child's education. The Food Bank is expanding its services and building a new farm.
Kubota is honored to support this program, and the Kubota Hometown Proud grant will be used to help build out a large barn, which will serve as the hub, offering a test kitchen, production space and community gathering space to serve school children and their families.
Central Winner: Ranchos Brazos Community Centers' Douglas Long Outreach for Children
In 2013, an EF4 tornado destroyed much of the community of Rancho Brazos in Granbury, Texas. Despite this devastating event, the spirit of the people in this community has continued to shine, and rebuilding efforts have ceased to stop.
In order to enhance and continue services the Douglas Long Outreach Center, the organization's future distribution center, is getting support from Kubota as one of this year's Kubota Hometown Proud grant recipients.
Kubota will help the organization to fund the development and maintenance of a community garden, livestock area and various agricultural projects for the local community and will break ground this summer.
Midwest Winner: New Richmond Area Community Foundation's Will's Playground
Teresa De Young, a mom raising her family in New Richmond, Wis., realized that there were no local playgrounds in her area that were accessible to her son, Will, who has Down Syndrome. The vision of Will's Playground encourages diversity, acceptance, courage, and resilience through the act of play.
Kubota is proud to partner with the New Richmond Area Community Foundation on Will's Playground. The grant will support demo of an out-of-date play structure and construction of a new, large-scale universal design playground including areas for sensory play, landscaping, fencing and accessible restrooms.
Southeast Winner: Langton Green Inc.'s Community Garden
Langton Green offers services to older people and people with developmental and intellectual abilities including job coaching, vocational training, and access to meaningful paid and volunteer positions at the Langton Green Community Farm.
Kubota is honored to award one of its Kubota Hometown Proud grants to Langton Green; it will be used to add raised garden beds to help provide vegetables, fruit and eggs to more than the existing 100 community residents it already feeds, equipment to help maintain the program and renovation costs for its facilities.
For more information, visit KubotaHometownProud.com.
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