What is the Awesome Foundation? The Awesome Foundation is decentralized micro-granting organization that gives monthly grants of $1000 to organizations and projects advancing Awesomeness in the Universe. For more information about the Awesome Foundation, visit their homepage here: www.awesomefoundation.org How does Awesome Sandy Rebuild fit in? After seeing the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy on the tri-state area, several New York residents came together to form an Awesome chapter dedicated exclusively to projects that helped to repair the hearts, spirits, minds and lives of those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Who is on Awesome Sandy Rebuild? The Awesome Sandy Rebuild Chapter is made up of people from a variety of backgrounds and specialties. Some work at not-profits, some work in the arts, and some have volunteered in storm affected areas.  They are all dedicated to helping the communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy recover as Awesome-ly as possible. What kind of projects are you looking to fund? Projects that are likely to catch our eyes are those that specifically and creatively show us how they will use $1000. Both individuals and organizations can and should apply with projects that put the $1000 grant towards anything that advances both Awesomeness and Sandy relief…. read more →

Awesome Food is superexcited to announce that its inaugural micro-grant of $1,000 has been awarded to Compost Mobile, a residential compost service based inMiami, Florida that provides a home pick-up service for food scraps that are then delivered to urban farms and community gardens. Compost Mobile, which is a project of the non-profit Up-Lab, was chosen out almost 600 applications submitted to the first round of Awesome Food call for proposals. “We think Compost Mobile is awesome because it’s making a difference at the ground level,” said Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks who is one of the Awesome Food trustees. “They’re figuring out how to take food scraps from the home and use them to help low-income communities start gardens and urban farms. It’s an awesome idea because it takes a bunch of problems—waste, food illiteracy, lack of nutritious food—and cancels them out by combining them in an awesome way!” Jennifer Siqueira, coordinator of Compost Mobile and co-founder of Up-Lab with Hector F. Burga, had been working in community gardens locally, when she learned of  a similar scraps to-compost effort in Washington DC. (There are similar efforts throughout the country). Jennifer explained, “I had friends who came to me with… read more →

Thanks to everyone who submitted to the first Awesome Food grant! It’s been overwhelming. Not only do we have applications from all over the United States and Canada, but also have applications from around the world: Tel Aviv, Shanghai, London, Melbourne. It’s great to see how much Food Awesomeness there is. So, 600 is a record for any of the Awesome Foundation chapters, and it will take us a bit to figure out how to process them. But we are scurrying around trying to figure out how to narrow it down. And yes, the applications are good for subsequent rounds. If they are not time sensitive, the top ones will automatically be rolled into considerations. In our ideal world, we’d announce in early September. (Wiggle room)

Awesome Food, a chapter of the worldwide Awesome Foundation, officially launched on Wednesday, July 20 and is now accepting grant applications from around the world to further food awesomeness in the universe. Visit awesomefood.net to learn more and apply at awesomefood.net/apply. The first round for application deadline is end-of-day, Friday, August 5th.