These 12 incredible People’s Fund grantees are changing the world for animals, people, and the planet!
The People’s Fund is a grant program established in 2020 that aims to advance Mercy For Animals’ work to create a just and sustainable food system, build people power to accelerate change, and achieve racial equity in funding across our movement by providing financial resources to advocates dedicated to making the food system work for everyone. Grantees are individuals and organizations focused on community building, organizing, education, legislative engagement, and so much more.
Get to know the outstanding work of our 12 recipients, and be inspired by their incredible contributions to our movement.
APEX Advocacy
APEX Advocacy spearheads BlPOC-centered animal rights initiatives and events to nurture the BIPOC animal advocacy community. They empower BIPOC animal rights advocates by providing training and professional resources. APEX maintains that revolutionary social justice movements must be populated and led by the communities that experience oppression firsthand.
Be Well with Brialle
Be Well with Brialle provides free and reduced-cost emotional support, trauma-informed training, and somatic healing services to cultivate well-being and foster longevity in the movement. Brialle Ringer helps more people reconnect with their body’s wisdom and deepen their emotional intelligence to create a movement of advocates thriving in their purpose.
Beyond Humane Education
Beyond Humane Education supports educators and advocates in teaching people about the intertwined systems of racism and animal oppression. BHE offers educational programming, cultivates communities of practice, and uplifts the liberatory work of BIPOC voices. In doing so, BHE seeks to deepen understanding, shift narratives, inspire activism, and promote community care.
Black VegFest
Black VegFest exists to advance and expand the Black-centered liberatory spaces that protect nonhuman animals. The festival is a celebration and gathering space where educators, artists, and vegan vendors promote the concepts, principles, benefits, and practicality of veganism before an audience of thousands of people, vegan and non-vegan.
Black Veg Society
Black Veg Society aims to educate BIPOC communities about the benefits of holistic health, plant-based diets, and veganism while building a community centered on healthy, accessible, and sustainable food with a focus on compassionate lifestyle choices. Black Veg Society has adopted Nia, the fifth principle of Kwanzaa, which encourages sharing and educating.
Chilis on Wheels
Chilis on Wheels, established in 2014, is dedicated to making veganism accessible to communities in need. They achieve this through direct food relief, education, mentorship, and policy advocacy. Their transformative Youth Steering Committee program, a vital part of their mission, is shifting the narrative on food systems and environmental advocacy by prioritizing those most affected by the climate crisis and food inequality: children and youth.
Plant The Power
Plant The Power seeks to cultivate a caring plant-based community for Black folks and communities of color that demonstrates unconditional love for ourselves, nonhuman animals, and our world. They coordinate intersectional-veganism programming and collaborative social and educational gatherings, such as documentary film screenings, vegan restaurant meetups, and cooking classes. Their goal is to help communities of color make informed decisions and experience the transformative power of plant-based living.
Rethink Your Food Inc.
Rethink Your Food creates public-awareness content about the benefits of a plant-focused food system and action-focused initiatives to inspire people to increase their consumption of nutritious plant-based food while celebrating Caribbean food culture. They collaborate with community leaders, other nonprofit organizations, institutions, and foodservice companies that are committed to investing in nutrition security in their communities.
The Cypher
The Cypher is “a Black femme-led collective for Trans and Queer racialized folks cultivating gender equity and food justice, and environmental justice through African ancestral, abolitionist, and total-liberation principles.” The collective’s spirited space answers the educational, food-access, health, and solidarity needs of LGBTQIA+ Black and Indigenous communities by providing healing, educational frameworks, and joy-building centering marginalized genders.
Unity Collective
Unity Collective helps people learn from one another and come together in community to support one another through the isolation and loneliness inherent to the experiences of colonized peoples. The collective looks for and establishes equitable funding practices and worker-centered organizational policies.
Vegans of LA Food Bank
Vegans of LA Food Bank works to create food security in Los Angeles communities where families may be experiencing economic hardships and struggle with a lack of information about proper nutrition. Gwenna Hunter is the visionary founder of Vegans of LA and the pioneering force behind the city’s first vegan food bank.
Veggie Mijas
Veggie Mijas is dedicated to supporting BIPOC individuals on their plant-based journey while advocating for animals and addressing environmental and social justice issues in their communities. They organize an average of 30 impactful events annually, including interactive workshops and cooking demos. Through advocacy and these events, Veggie Mijas promotes sustainable and compassionate living.
____
Mercy For Animals is honored to stand behind the remarkable efforts of organizations and advocates at the forefront of our shared mission to build a compassionate world where both animals and people are respected, protected, and free. Recognizing the prevalent issue of racial inequity in nonprofit funding, we acknowledge that our movement is not exempt from this challenge. We sincerely hope that this program serves as an inspiration for historically white-led nonprofits and funding organizations to actively incorporate racial equity into their initiatives, strategies, and collaborations.
Want to learn more? Sign up to receive updates at MFAPeoplesFund.com.
