Just coffee in an unjust world

Worker cooperatives like the bookstore/cafe Red Emma's partnered with other organizations to create Seed Commons, a national financing network that provides loans without requiring individual collateral. Seed Commons has distributed over $100 million in loans supporting 15,000 workers nationwide. In the Baltimore region specifically, the network has invested $25 million, created 250 ownership-track jobs, and supported 23 cooperatives.

Vermont's community-led movement to build a thriving local agriculture economy, through nonprofit infrastructure investments, diversified farming practices, and bipartisan collaboration, has revitalized small farms, boosted food resilience, and offered a viable economic alternative to industrialized agriculture.

Watanda is a bulk-shopping system that helps ensure low-income families have access to meat during the Eid-al-Fitr celebration following Ramadan. In Watanda groups, members contribute money to a collective fund to purchase cattle that is then split between all the contributors. Amidst the rising cost of cattle, Watanda groups help ensure families have food on the table and can still participate in celebrations.

Mobile homeowners are buying the land their homes are on to form resident-owned cooperatives so they can upgrade infrastructure faster. This allows them to combat and adapt to climate change by installing things like solar panels and drainage systems.

The Citizen's Call for the Emergency Evacuation of the South Sudanese collective arose after a lack of government action to help evacuate people pushed locals to start a crowdfunding campaign to facilitate the evacuations themselves. Through the use of social media, community meetings and press conferences the collective called upon locals and organizations to donate to the cause. The money was then used to pay truck drivers to help transport evacuated people. So far, these efforts have helped 6,600 individuals.

The Sogorea Te Land Trust is an intertribal women-led organization that is working to reclaim ownership of land in the Bay Area that Ohlone people have lived on for centuries. They regained access to the land through a partnership with another local grassroots organization called Planting Justice, who will eventually hand over the land to Sogorea Te for free once it is fully paid off. Sogorea Te believes that the root of a lot of Indigenous problems is the dispossession of their land, so they hope to use this land to rebuild resiliency and a way of life for and with their people.

An impoverished corner of Hawaii may not sound like the foundation of a successful agriculture endeavor, but local youth have proved otherwise. MA'O translating into youth food garden aims to show college-aged youth a way onto a different path by teaching them sustainable and organic farm practices alongside lessons in how to be leaders in all areas of life.

Community-led urban farms in Jakarta empower residents to transform underused city spaces like alleyways and campus grounds into productive local food sources. These initiatives often blend traditional gardening with community organizing, educational outreach, and sometimes smart technology or agricultural research to improve food access, enhance green space, and foster local resilience.

The Capacity Collaborative and Thriving Earth Exchange are working together to establish volunteer community science hubs to support environmental justice projects in communities around the United States. The organizations connect communities with scientists and experts who volunteer their time to help move their projects forward.

Through volunteers and partnerships with other local organizations, the Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Center distributes a month’s worth of food to families in need for free, as a large portion of the population is undocumented, unemployed, or otherwise ineligible for government assistance. The Center also provides services such as English language classes, a clothes closet, a diaper bank and assistance getting a driver’s license.