WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Mission Waco Mission World, the city of Waco and several other community non-profit partners have been awarded the EPA Environment and Climate Justice Community Change Grant for $17,886,260.
- Funds will support green initiatives, including resilient housing, air quality, and EV charging stations
- Mission Waco, Mission World, and other local groups will allocate money towards various sustainability projects
- Grant aims to build community resilience through environmental and social initiatives
- All projects funded by the grant must be completed by 2027
- Northcutt shares his thoughts on how to grant can be used to address the climate crisis
- The targeted grant period is Jan 1, 2025-Dec 31, 2027
- The grant money needs to be used within three years
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"I'm a retired physician and science has been my life," Alan Northcutt said.
Local climate change activist Alan Northcutt says he's dedicated much of his retired life to helping the environment — he says he heard about our community's environmental protection agency grant through city council.
"I think what is there is good," he said.
"I think when the details are worked out on implementing the grant, the climate crisis needs to be kept in mind."
He says while these initiatives are a good start, there is always more that needs to be done from everyone.
"This grant comes at a time when Waco is already moving in that direction and so my hope and vision is that this will fuel what's already happening," Director of Urban Reap Emily Hills said.
With local nonprofit Mission Waco, Mission World leading the charge, the organization, the city and other local non-profits will share $18,000,000 in federal grant money from the EPA.
The Community Change Grant is awarded to several collaborators including Mission Waco Mission World, city of Waco, HARC, World Hunger Relief, Family of Faith Worship Center and Baylor University.
Director of Urban Reap Emily Hills tells me the theme of the grant is resiliency.
"We are all about trying to build a more resilient community," she said.
"Some of that is the environment, thinking about green spaces and infrastructure that really help our community survive and thrive, like in crazy weather events. Also social resilience, how can we work together to try to provide more opportunities for people to get involved in this."
Each group has its own goals and ways the money will be reimbursed.
For example, Mission Waco Mission World plans to use the money towards a few different initiatives including EV charging, scholarships and paid internships in equivalent fields and community waste collection and composting.
"Some of the funds are going to be used to advance composting, that's a positive thing because when you have food waste and it breaks down when it's in a landfill and produces greenhouse gas particularly methane," Northcutt said.
