As housing costs have risen far faster than incomes for Philadelphia’s poorest residents, Bread & Roses grantees—Philly Thrive, Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities, Make the Road PA, and POWER Interfaith—made the case that the city’s housing funds must measurably benefit the people most impacted. In December, City Council unanimously agreed, passing Philadelphia’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy (H.O.M.E.) Plan with an amendment that directs even more resources to low-income homeowners and renters. 

This victory didn’t happen overnight. Grassroots groups educated neighbors and Councilmembers about housing cost-burden in every district, hosted letter-writing events, published op-eds, built champions inside City Hall, and mobilized community members to show up in force ahead of the vote. The final H.O.M.E. legislation includes funding for home repairs, rental assistance, and accessibility improvements for people with disabilities.

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

Artists for Immigrant Rights (AIR) started with a desire to do something, and an idea: organize a photo sale to support grassroots groups mobilizing immigrant communities for action. That idea blossomed into something much bigger. In November, their second photo sale, held at Bread & Roses, inspired donations and matching funds that quadrupled their impact—and sparked momentum that is still going today.

Thanks to this groundswell of support from more than 200 people, Bread & Roses made $100,000 in rapid response grants to ten organizations who are fighting attacks on immigrants and building community power:

• Asian Americans United
• CAIR-Philadelphia
• Comité de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agrícolas
• Free Migration Project
• Juntos
• Movement of Immigrant Leaders in Pennsylvania
• New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia
• No ICE Philly
• VietLead
• Woori Center

Read more in this edition of our email newsletter.

The longest federal government shutdown ever ended on November 12, releasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits that the Trump administration had shockingly withheld from 42 million Americans. Funding for the food assistance program is now set to last through September 2026, but for many, the crisis of food security remains.

SNAP’s new work requirements are another barrier, as is the administration’s insistence even after the end of the shutdown that they will “completely deconstruct” the program. Alongside funding cuts, mass layoffs at the Department of Agriculture (USDA), tariffs, and ICE raids decimating farmers and food chains in the country, this means that unreliable access to food is an increasing threat to the wellbeing of millions of Americans.

But we’re seeing that when institutions fail people, grassroots community organizing is the reliable force that delivers. Neighborhood Land Power Project, a Bread & Roses grantee, organizes for neighborhood-rooted food and land systems in West Philadelphia, emphasizing the importance of sustainable farms and food security.

Grantee Reinhard Street Community Farm & Kitchen mobilizes folks to reactivate neglected land and transform those spaces into community resources that build power and literally nourish residents in southwest Philadelphia.

Fellow grantees Asian Americans United, KITHS Integrated and Targeted Human Services, and Children First PA have recently organized campaigns centered on food justice, from food distribution to urging City Hall to retain the soda tax for funding Pre-K services.

Learn more in this weeks email newsletter.

Over 100 people came out on November 6 to the Artists for Immigrant Rights photo sale at Bread & Roses! So far, Bread & Roses has raised more than $38,000 to move right away toward immigrant rights organizing.

Erika Guadalupe Nuñez, executive director of Juntos, the Latine community organizing group shared the community-run rapid response hotline for folks who witness an ICE raid or pick-up: 814-205-3293; please put it in your contacts and share with friends and neighbors.

Learn more in this edition of our email newsletter.

Bread & Roses Community Fund’s board co-chair Patrice Green was quoted in this story in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about protest and social justice funders! Here is an excerpt from the story:

For the Bread & Roses Community Fund, protest is a key method of pushing for social change. Grantees of the $14 million fund have taken to the streets, held signs, chanted slogans, and rallied for various causes since it was created five decades ago.

Putting feet on the ground has helped pave the way for notable policy developments, according to Patrice Green, Bread & Roses’s co-chair, including the creation of Philadelphia’s housing trust fund and stopping the expansion of a large oil refinery in the city.

Protesting, she said, is an essential tool that organizers can use to enact change.

“The reality is: We require both the inside work of policy change and the outside pressure of people having their voices heard,” she said.

Read the whole piece here.

How are you showing up in this critical moment? It’s a question a lot of us are asking ourselves right now. From joining a community organizing group, to connecting with loved ones, to just trying to find ways to avoid doom-scrolling, there are lots of strategies for survival.

Bread & Roses Community Fund is a place you can count on to find ways to connect towards liberation. This weeks email newsletter highlights Artists for Immigrant Rights (AIR), a collective of photographers who wanted to do something meaningful to support immigrants under attack by ICE and the federal government. Learn more here.

Local organizing groups are bringing radical clarity and commitment to meet the moment. Bread & Roses grantees are on the ground throughout the Philadelphia region helping to build power in their communities. At this year’s “Meet the Changemakers” event. Leaders from prominent local movement organizations shared powerful—and evergreen—thoughts that can inspire and sustain all of us as we try to make it through each day:

“There’s no way we’re getting through this period of fascism without every single person being in this fight.” — Vivian Chang, Asian Americans United

“The purpose of a fascist regime is to disorganize us, create chaos, crush the revolutionary consciousness of the people. We have to hold hands in the fight.” — Brittany Alston, Philly Black Worker Project

“No one [from outside] is coming to save us. But we have each other. We are our own saviors.” — Erika Guadalupe Nuñez, Juntos

Learn more in this week’s edition of From the Frontlines email newsletter.

Authoritarians are working overtime to intimidate, harm, and divide us. They are poisoning our air and water with one hand and taking away our healthcare with the other. They are targeting Black and Brown communities by militarizing our cities. They are sending masked ICE agents to abduct our immigrant neighbors. They do this to keep us from rising up in revolutionary action for each other.

But the future is never decided in advance; in every moment, people can turn to each other and take action. This week’s email From the Frontlines email newsletter, we’re spotlighting ways you can show up alongside Bread & Roses Community Fund grantees and other grassroots groups across the Philadelphia region as they organize communities for survival, solidarity, and liberation.

Click here to learn more.

On the first and third Friday of the month, we’ll be spotlighting how Bread & Roses Community Fund grantees are organizing communities for survival, solidarity, and liberation in this challenging moment.

We’ll also share timely news, opportunities, and resources from other grassroots groups and activists across the Philadelphia region.

In times like these, we all need to stay connected. No matter what conditions we face, organized communities find paths for collective change. Check out the first issue of the From the Frontlines email newsletter.

Bread & Roses annual Tribute to Change celebration honored climate justice organizing in 2025. Check out this video, starring the Tribute’s honorees: Zulene Mayfield, Talia Young, Ella Israeli, and POWER Interfaith.

The 2025 Tribute to Change honorees demonstrate are committed here to fighting for climate justice in the Philadelphia region.

As Zulene Mayfield, our Paul Robeson Lifetime Achievement Award honoree says in the film, “Everyone needs to care about this.” Zulene reminds us that our opponents “[do not] understand the resiliency of people who are threatened. They can bring it on, because we ain’t going nowhere.