Five social innovators have been recognized by the new nonprofit Invested Faith with $5,000 grants and an invitation to tell their stories nationwide.
Invested Faith, founded in 2019 by Baptist pastor Amy Butler, seeks out faith-rooted social innovators who are working to address systemic issues of justice in their communities while building sustainable financial models.
With this fifth class of Faith Fellows, Invested Faith now has recognized 22 young innovators working in a variety of fields.
“The work of our Invested Faith Fellows continues to amaze and inspire me. I’m grateful for the life-changing work of these Fellows, and I’m delighted to introduce you to them!” said founder Amy Butler, a Baptist pastor.
The newest Faith Fellows are:
Tiffany Terrell
Tiffany Terrell, A Better Way Grocers, Albany, Ga. The mission of A Better Way Grocers is to drive nutritious food into communities struggling with food access issues across southwest Georgia. Using a retrofitted school bus as a one-aisle grocery store, Terrell and her team offer reasonably priced, healthy and nutritious food to local communities, along with health education to address chronic food-related illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Kit Evans Ford
Argrow “Kit” Evans-Ford, Argrow’s House, Davenport, Iowa. Argrow’s House is a safe space where free services are offered daily for women healing from violence in the greater Quad Cities area. Named after Evans-Ford’s mother who was a survivor of domestic violence, this social enterprise provides women the opportunity to earn a living wage by creating bath and body products in a safe space that celebrates who they are.
Drew Nagy
Drew Nagy, Living Water, Richmond, Va. Living Water is an attempt to reimagine what a faith community looks like and how it engages with the local ecosystem. With the goal of engaging a community committed to the flourishing of all of life on earth, Living Water is a community center, bee sanctuary and monastery and offers individuals the chance to participate in contemplative practices such as yoga, meditation, mindful beekeeping and urban farming.
Stephanie Mayer
Stephanie Mayer, NARY, New York City. NARY was founded by three sisters in May 2020. Named after their Cambodian mother, Phannary, the company was inspired by their mother’s story of survival from the Khmer Rouge that occurred in the late 1970s in Cambodia. Utilizing the fashion education each sister attained through college and working in San Francisco and New York City, NARY produces beautiful, ethical and sustainable clothing and products.
Olatunji Oboi Reed
Olatunji Oboi Reed, Equiticity, Chicago. The Freedom and Culture Bicycle Cooperative is Equiticity’s vision for manufacturing bicycles in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the Westside of Chicago. Explicitly developed to remove the generational cycle of poverty, create living wage jobs, provide transferable and career-oriented job skills to young adults, and reduce hyper-local violence, the company will manufacture bicycles, with young adults from the neighborhood in the role of worker-owners of the cooperative who will share collectively in the profits.
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