Tucson City of Gastronomy Awarded Grant to Launch Resilience Kitchen
Tucson City of Gastronomy (TCOG) has received a $750,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place Program—marking a major milestone for the organization and Tucson’s local food community. Over the next three years, the funding will support TCOG’s existing initiatives and launch the Resilience Kitchen, a new program blending heritage preservation, climate resilience, and community placemaking through the celebration of borderlands heritage foods.
TCOG is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that manages the first-in-the-nation UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy designation. Learn more or support their mission at Tucson.CityOfGastronomy.org.
The Resilience Kitchen will serve as a community-engagement platform to explore Tucson’s multicultural identity through food traditions while promoting a sustainable, climate-adaptive food future. By centering Indigenous and immigrant foodways, the program will elevate underrepresented voices, deepen connections to place, and create opportunities for education and economic development through food.
“This grant arrives at a critical time for arts, culture and heritage profits nationwide,” says Jonathan Mabry, TCOG executive dir-ector. “TCOG will now be able to expand our reach, strengthen our impact, and ensure that Tucson’s rich food heritage remains a source of resilience, pride and inspiration for generations to come.”
Board President Janos Wilder notes that the initiative connects 5,000 years of Sonoran Desert food traditions with a new generation of farmers, chefs and scientists working to promote heat-tolerant, low-water heritage foods for the hotter future.
Deadline July 10th. Email 
