Our Clients
Read below about the range of clients and projects DAISA has engaged with.
El Departamento de la Comida (El Depa) is a non-profit collective based in rural San Salvador (Caguas) Puerto Rico. By supporting a network of local, decentralized, queer/trans, and small-scale food projects, El Depa works towards food sovereignty for Puerto Rico. In the community of San Salvador, El Depa operates a community food hub and kitchen, an AgroTeca resource and tool lending library, an intergenerational knowledge exchange program, and a community seed library.
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Following the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health, the CDC Foundation was tapped to lead a national action collaborative on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The mission of the HNH Action Collaborative is to drive collaboration, foster innovation and amplify initiatives that support ending hunger across the United States. DAISA is helping design and facilitate a cohort of 10 community-based organizations to learn about, and provide input into, for the CDC Foundation’s emerging food systems work and the National Action Collaborative for Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. This initiative will provide community perspectives on how to make those efforts equitable and effective, and create mechanisms for ongoing important roles for CBOs.
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Makoce Agriculture Development is building a Food Hub to address dire food system gaps on the Pine Ridge Reservation of SD, seeking to increase food security and food sovereignty. DAISA was hired to integrate the learnings of the project's initial viability study and develop a detailed business plan. DAISA worked closely with organization project leaders to interview local stakeholders, analyze the food hub's potential business lines, understand key revenue and expense drivers, and develop a sustainable plan. What emerged was a very different food hub than typical produce aggregation and distribution, but focused on unique cultural and community assets and opportunities (i.e. locally-raised proteins). As part of the final deliverables, DAISA prepared a written Business Plan (20 pages), 5-year pro forma financial projections with internal and external versions of spreadsheets, a Business Model Canvas, a grants/funding opportunity list, and DAISA recommendations for next phases of development and plan validation.
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FoodMap NY, an initiative led by New York University (NYU) Stern Center for Sustainable Business and Cornell Johnson Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, undertook research to design a privately funded New York State Food is Medicine program. While Food is Medicine offerings are rapidly expanding around the country, the field lacks sustainable funding models, and this pilot aims to demonstrate a funding model distinct from the current and common approaches that rely on healthcare foundation grants, Medicaid, and Medicare dollars.
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SEMTAC – the SNAP EBT Modernization Technical Assistance Center – is a cooperative grant project between USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, which administers SNAP, and the National Grocer’s Association Foundation. This Technical Assistance Center was created to help provide information and technical assistance to retailers who are interested or currently in the process of enrolling into the USDA’s SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot. Navigating online and eCommerce technology can be difficult for retailers who are less acquainted with the industry or have trouble navigating what needs to be accomplished to implement this program.
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Wholesome Wave (WW) is the leading national organization working to increase affordable access to fruits and vegetables for Americans struggling with hunger and nutrition insecurity, pioneering the Produce Prescription model in 2010. Since 2020, DAISA has deployed expertise in project and partner management, facilitation and development of the National Produce Prescription Collaborative, designed and executed national field scan research, and partnered with the WW team to advance and embed their Fidelity, Equity, and Dignity model, pursuant of a racial equity imperative, throughout all programming and policy advancement as we drive to further embed the Produce Prescription model into healthcare systems.
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Young Mountain Tea is an Oregon-based tea company with a mission to develop a market that raises up emerging tea makers, creating vibrant mountain economies and healthy lands across the Indian subcontinent. The company specializes in sourcing single-origin, organic, loose-leaf teas direct from smallholder farmers. As its first equity investment and Venture Building Partnership, DAISA Capital is piloting a new model for investing in sustainable food and agriculture. This investment is anticipated to be the first of a small DAISA portfolio of high-impact companies, all forging opportunities and increasing equity through healthy foods and value chains.
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Equitable Food Oriented Development (EFOD) is a development strategy that uses food and agriculture to create economic opportunities, healthy neighborhoods, and explicitly seeks to build community assets, pride, and power by and with historically marginalized communities. DAISA convenes the EFOD Collaborative and provides backbone support to the EFOD Steering Committee as it conducts field research, designs new financing structures, and creates an alternative model of community-led food systems.
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Food System 6 (FS6) is a non-profit business accelerator whose mission is to support impact-driven entrepreneurs as they transform how we grow, produce, and distribute food. The organization runs a comprehensive program that mentors entrepreneurs by coaching them through a wide range of business and organizational needs. DAISA Enterprises strategizes with Food System 6 on grant application design, stakeholder engagement, and sustainable initiatives for food system innovation across the county.
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Nuestras Raíces is a grassroots urban agriculture organization based in Holyoke, MA, with the mission to create healthy environments, celebrate “agri-culture,” harness collective energy, and to advance the vision of a just and sustainable future. DAISA Enterprises advises Nuestras Raíces on programming, strategy, and grant writing, with recent awards totaling over $500,000, to support their internal farmer training programs, on-site farm management, direct-to-consumer outlets, and Sofrito production.
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The Kresge Foundation is a private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development. From 2015-2021 DAISA served as the National Program Office for the Kresge Foundation Fresh, Local, & Equitable (FreshLo) initiative, providing strategic guidance, operations, convening facilitation, and capacity building for a cohort of 26 grantee partners across the country.
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The Healthy Children and Families (HCF) focus area of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation works to ensure that all families–no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make–have the resources they need to foster healthy development from their child’s earliest years. From 2019-2020, DAISA provided strategic direction, ideation, research, stakeholder engagement, and Grantee Planning Committee facilitation for their annual HCF Grantee Summit.
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Artplace America was a ten-year, $150 million collaboration among a number of funders that operated from 2010 to 2020 with the mission to position arts and culture as a core sector of equitable community planning and development.
DAISA was selected in 2018 by ArtPlace as a research partner to examine the role of arts & culture in the agriculture and food sectors nationally. Published in May 2019, the Cultivating Creativity: Exploring Arts & Culture in Community Food Systems Transformation report explores how arts and culture can be better leveraged to create equitable and place-based food systems change. |
The Myrna Loy inspires Central Montana by presenting culturally enriching arts experiences of all disciplines; supporting local and regional artists in their work; and fostering a lifelong love of the arts through educational projects and experiences. Myrna Loy engaged DAISA to provide site analysis, strategy, and business planning for the East Helena Food & Culture Hub, a project to foster community and social gathering through culinary learning, expression, and cultural celebration.
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North Spore’s mission is to make the world of mushrooms accessible to all, fostering innovation and collaboration to improve tomorrow. The Maine-based company produces 100% of the spawn used at its facility and also makes sawdust, plug, and grain spawn for commercial and enthusiast growers.
In 2019 DAISA provided North Spore with growth strategy assistance to support them in gaining access to capital, allowing the company to grow while retaining their mission and values. |
Southwest Georgia Project is working in all fourteen counties to educate, engage and empower communities around food, farm, and human rights as a platform to economic and community development for Southwest Georgia. The Southwest Georgia Project was founded out of the civil rights movement and has, for more than 55 years, worked to ensure stability for the region’s most vulnerable.
DAISA Enterprises has supported SWGA with business planning and sustainability strategy, to reach the goals of the initiative. |
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation is the philanthropic community investment side of the health care organization whose mission is to improve the quality and value of healthcare for the people and communities it serves. DAISA Enterprises, along with Catherine Sands from Fertile Ground, have provided critical design and evaluation services and expertise for the Foundation's Healthy Food Fund, affording grants to 20+ organizations building access to fresh food in CT, MA, ME, and NH.
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Founded in 2009, eKutir Social Business Group is a for-profit social enterprise group focused on providing economically sustainable solutions anchored with technology, technology, micro-entrepreneurship, and community engagement. DAISA Enterprises provided a value chain analysis and new health market development strategies to support the innovative and successful VeggieKart produce distribution business. This work has been recognized by the UN Chief for their efforts to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development.
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The Society for Organizational Learning is the consulting and training initiative of Peter Senge, MIT Sloan professor and author of the influential best-selling business book, The Fifth Discipline. DAISA Enterprises helped facilitate multi-stakeholder visioning and project work to protect critical ecosystems of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Participants included small-boat fisherman cooperatives, the tourism industry, government, and international conservation NGOs.
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Chicago Council of Global Affairs (CCGA) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization that provides insight – and influences the public discourse – on critical global issues. DAISA Enterprises provided CCGA with a high level view of current innovations and disruptive enterprises addressing both hunger and obesity in low income communities in the United States.
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Develop Springfield is a nonprofit corporation advancing urban redevelopment in the City of Springfield, MA, to strengthen the City’s economy and improve the quality of life for the residents. DAISA Enterprises collaborated with the Economic Development Assistance Consortium to prepare an application for funding (to the Health & Human Services’ Community Economic Development Program) to support Develop Springfield’s plan to develop a desperately needed new supermarket in a food-insecure neighborhood.
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Project Bread approaches ending hunger through healthy food. Working throughout Massachusetts the organization leads a variety of research, community mobilization, and food security initiatives. DAISA Enterprises provided strategic advice to the Executive Director around plans for new community-based initiatives as well as how to best impact legislation.
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Growing Places believes in the power of gardening to change lives and uses gardening as a platform for social change in North Central Massachusetts. DAISA Enterprises has provided sustainability planning services to map assets, outline potential revenue streams, and develop a business plan for financial viability and continued community impact.
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