My Grant Writing “Why” | Alayna Patrick
My grant writing “why” starts with some of my childhood experiences. I was born & raised in north St. Louis city, Missouri. My neighbors were like extended family and everyone looked out for one another. One of my neighbors had a garden in her backyard and I was always fascinated that she could basically grocery shop in her own backyard. I had to have been about 10 years old when I became something like her apprentice. She would also take me to community gardens and her school garden. I remember her mentioning something about a grant and how it allowed her to buy supplies for the garden at the school. I thought that it was so cool to spend someone else’s money to do something you love. I started my own backyard garden in middle school and I too was able to use someone else’s money to do something that I love. Thanks to my parents. 😊 I had a garden throughout high school, but once I went away to college I left my green thumb behind …well temporarily.
I attended Alabama A&M University. Looking back, I wish that I would have taken advantage of the agricultural opportunities there. There was so much land and I remember seeing people farming on campus, but I never thought to try to participate. After graduation, I went on to work for the United States Department of Agriculture as a food inspector in Decatur, Alabama. After two years, I realized that inspecting chickens in poultry plants was not for me. After a while, I began to get homesick and moved back to Saint Louis. I became employed by the City of St. Louis Department of Health as an Environmental Health Officer. I loved working in the field as a health officer because it allowed me to engage with city residents, respond to their health complaints, and work at my own pace. This job also showed me a glimpse of how many people live in underserved communities and I felt the urge to do more. I eventually applied to the Master of Science Nutrition and Dietetics program at Saint Louis University. I was accepted and offered a graduate assistantship. Some of my duties as a graduate assistant included things that I love. I helped maintain Saint Louis University’s garden and also worked on numerous projects aimed at improving food access in the Saint Louis area.
In the summer of 2017, I attended the Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program. This program allowed me to work on a project called the “Food Provision in the Ville: A Historical Perspective.” This project focused on mapping food provision in the Ville neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri from years 1878 to 2017. I used the locations of grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, delicatessens, confectionaries, and butcher shops in the Ville to get an idea of just how thriving this community once was. I thought about how the loss of these businesses contributed to the decrease in food access in this community and even other communities in the Saint Louis area. I remember speaking to researchers after presenting this research at a conference, and so many people told me that I could probably seek funding to do more work in this area. I think about it all of the time and I know one day I will pick up where I left off.
In 2018, I had the opportunity to work with the grant-funded North City Food Hub. I was employed as the Operations Manager and this allowed me to help increase food access in North St. Louis. These experiences taught me a lot and helped me to shape my research interests. There were also different aspects that I like about each experience and I would be able to write some of these components into a grant. For example, I loved the community engagement side of working as a health officer. I also enjoyed being able to set my own pace to get my job done. I enjoyed working as a graduate assistant because I like the mentorship aspect. I also liked the flexibility of working at my own pace. The food provision project allowed me to approach public health issues from a historical perspective and of course, I also loved the work that I have done with gardening and food access projects.
I would say that I have an extremely small amount of grant writing experience. Last year, I helped someone write a mini-grant for a community garden project and she was awarded the grant. I had no clue what I was doing, but I guess it was good enough. My second experience with grant writing was about two months ago. I applied for a mini-grant that funds Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) growers in the St. Louis area. I recently found out that I am one of the recipients. I am super excited about this because it will help to fund some of my community garden projects coming up in the spring of 2021.
When I think about why I want to gain skills in grant writing, I think about improving the community around me. So, I then ask myself, why not? Why not apply for grants to fund my goals and dreams? Why not apply to grants that will aid in the development of underserved communities? Why not apply to grants that will increase food access in my community, and why not apply to grants that will improve the field of public health, fund projects related to my research interests, and allow me to work at my own pace. I mean, why not?
