Early Impact: Proof of Concept Through Service
- Jan 29
- 2 min read
A Letter From Our Founder | 2025 In Review
When I founded this nonprofit in August 2024, it was in response to a clear gap across our food system: visionary entrepreneurs working to restore the health of land, people, and local markets — rich in purpose, yet undercapitalized, and disconnected from the tools and funding needed to make real progress.
Project Feeding Ground is on a mission to change that.
Our vision is quite simple. We must ensure that the people rebuilding our food system are supported, funded, and connected.
In 2025, we focused on proof of concept through service.
Made possible through investments of time, expertise, partnerships, and ecosystem capital, our team delivered over 400 hours of direct support, strategic guidance, and technical assistance to more than 15 of Tampa Bay’s early-stage food entrepreneurship ventures.
In addition to service and support delivery, Project Feeding Ground formalized strategic partnerships with FrescoSerra, Access to Fresh, and Conduit Government Relations to develop the "Pasco Food Sovereignty Initiative", a place-based regional hub combining production, aggregation, preservation, and distribution of fresh, high quality food - enabling a consistent supply to healthcare, institutional, and community markets, generating economic reliability and workforce pathways for farmers, while supporting community access and public health interventions through programmatic innovation and delivery.
Outside of my role as Founder and President of Project Feeding Ground, I served in a leadership capacity as Co-Chair of Homegrown Hillsborough's Food Production Working group, alongside Dee Morales of 813 Hood Gardens, and continue to serve as Co-Chair of the Novel Approaches to Agriculture Working Group, within the University of South Florida's Future of Food Think Tank, alongside Dr. Miranda Mattingly, Assistant Director, Research Development Institute, where I have had the distinct priveledge of fostering University-Community partnerships across Tampa Bay's regional food system.
Together, these efforts establish clear evidence of need, impact, and scalability, forming the foundation for how we will innovate and strengthen our service delivery model moving forward.
I’m honored to share this journey with you and look forward to building a sustainable, investable, community-rooted food future — together.
If you represent a community foundation, corporate philanthropy, or private giving, your partnership fuels the support and infrastructure that helps founders — and the communities they serve — thrive.
Thank you for being part of this work!
With Sincere Gratitude,
Nicole McDougall
Founder & President, Project Feeding Ground
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