By Edmond Ortiz
A statewide culinary advocacy organization recently distributed $22,500 in grants to two San Antonio businesses and one local nonprofit for their work to promote and strengthen their culinary communities.
The Austin-based Texas Food & Wine Alliance announced on Dec. 11 it was awarding a record $183,000 in grants to 22 individual projects across 13 businesses and nonprofit initiatives.
The monies come from the TFWA Grant Program, which extends direct support to impactful chefs, farmers, artisan producers, distillers, nonprofits and culinary businesses, according to a news release. This year, three of the awardees hail from San Antonio:
*Sari-Sari Market & Bakery was awarded $5,000 from TFWA, $5,000 from Favor, and $5,000 from alliance supporter Gina Burchenal. Sari-Sari opened in 1996 as an Asian grocery store featuring Filipino food before expanding with a restaurant component and then a bakery focused on Filipino pastries.
Alliance representatives said the grant money will fund renovations at the bakery portion of Sari-Sari, such as the installation of a new vent hood to reduce heat accumulation, and enable the safe preparation of more heat-sensitive items.
*Texas Bean Freak was awarded $5,000 from H-E-B for diversity, equity and inclusion, and $2,500 from Jeff Conarko for sustainability. This is a veteran-owned nursery that specializes in heirloom seeds and plants. Texas Bean Freak created Seeds of Yesterday, Seeds of Tomorrow, a project designed to expand production and community outreach to raise visibility and access to rare heirlooms while meeting growing consumer demand.
The news release stated that the grant money will support scaling operations, retail packaging, greenhouse construction, and the development of point-of-sale displays. Texas Bean Freak aims to supply seeds and seedlings at four nurseries this spring 2026, and deliver more than a dozen free gardening workshops anchored around food sovereignty and sustainable gardening.
*San Antonio Food Bank was awarded $5,000 from TFWA. The money will be used to help fund operations at the food bank’s 75 acres of urban farm land, particularly in regards to SAFB’s recent launch of a program that brings trustees from Dominguez State Jail to the farm daily for credentialed agricultural job training.
According to the release, while participants mainly work in the urban farm production fields, the grant money will support designated plots, providing irrigation supplies, seeds, soil, fuel and organic pest controls so trustees can choose crops, apply classroom lessons and share harvests with both the jail and the community at large.
