Meet Your New Grant Writers!

Meet Your New Grant Writers!

Photo: Jazmyn Rudolph (pictured left) & Jay Eury (pictured right)

Jazmyn Rudolph and Jay Eury have been hired to assist PFPC members with grant writing. They are mapping out a strategy for how they will provide grant assistance to PFPC members. More information to come on what  the assistance will look like. See more information about Jazmyn and Jay below:

Ms. Jazmyn Rudolph is a Manchester and Northside native of Pittsburgh.  She began with a passion for growing food and connecting Black youth and families of Pittsburgh to where their food comes from, and how to use plants to heal themselves.  During her time as Agricultural Project Manager, she raised $90,000 at the federal, state and local levels for Farm-to-School Programming at her alma mater. One of her goals is to utilize urban Agriculture to increase classroom capital in urban schools and equity for Black people. 

As a grower and advocate, she believes in sharing the power of knowledge with communities to enact change.  Within her new role as grant writer at the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, she is excited to redirect grants funds to local, hands-on organizations by being a bridge between the non-profit funding stream and historically siloed communities.  She believes it is time to restore dignity to Black and marginalized growers that starts with access to equitable funding.

Jay has written grants that combined total more than $1 million in funds awarded from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Environmental Protection, regional nonprofit endowments, and private foundations. Jay worked for Penn State Extension for the past three years where he provided technical assistance to farm and food businesses and organizations in the areas of marketing and market development.  He facilitated a statewide network of farmers market managers through the COVID-19 pandemic, identified grant opportunities for food and ag-related businesses and organizations, and created educational programming to support successful grant applications. Prior to PSU Extension, Jay worked across Central PA in production and sales positions at fruit and vegetable farms, as a manager at his local farmers market, a line cook at a fast casual restaurant, a mobile bottler, and a program coordinator for The Gleaning Project of South Central PA, a program of the nonprofit South Central Community Action Programs.

Finally, if you haven't filled out the Member Funding Needs Survey yet, please fill one out here.