The Texas Food & Wine Alliance is pouring a record $183,000 in culinary grants into Lone Star State businesses and nonprofits this week — and three San Antonio organizations were among the recipients.
At a Thursday night ceremony in Austin, the Alliance awarded funding to 22 projects across the state, including ones undertaken by San Antonio’s Sari-Sari Market & Bakery, Texas Bean Freak and the San Antonio Food Bank. Grants ranged from $5,000 to $25,000 and recognized projects that strengthen Texas’ food systems, expand culinary education and preserve cultural food traditions.
Of the total, $79,500 came from named and sponsored grants, while TFWA’s 2025 programming raised $103,000. Since launching the grant program in 2012, the nonprofit has distributed $782,000 to support Texas’ food and beverage community.
Here’s what to know about San Antonio’s grant recipients:
Sari-Sari Market & Bakery
Sari-Sari, which opened in 1996 as a small market serving San Antonio’s Filipino community, has since grown into a beloved restaurant and bakery. Sixteen years after launching its bakery, the family-owned business is undertaking major upgrades to boost production quality for its customers.
Sari-Sari received a total of $15,000 — $5,000 from the Texas Food & Wine Alliance, $5,000 from Favor and $5,000 from Gina Burchenal — to install a new vent hood that will improve kitchen safety and allow for the preparation of heat-sensitive baked goods.
Texas Bean Freak
Texas Bean Freak LLC, a minority-, woman- and veteran-owned nursery specializing in heirloom seeds, was awarded funding for its Seeds of Yesterday, Seeds of Tomorrow initiative, which expands access to rare heirloom varieties and deepens community education around food sovereignty.
The project will use the grant funding for greenhouse construction, retail packaging, point-of-sale displays and expanded distribution. Its goal is to supply seeds and seedlings at four nurseries by spring 2026. The initiative also includes more than a dozen free workshops.
Texas Bean Freak received $7,500 in total grants: $5,000 from H-E-B for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and $2,500 from Jeff Conarko for sustainability.
San Antonio Food Bank — Urban Farm Project
The San Antonio Food Bank, operator of Texas’ largest urban farm, received support for an agricultural training program launching in fall 2025 for trustees from Dominguez State Jail. The first-of-its-kind partnership with the Texas Criminal Justice System’s Windham School District will offer credentialed training in organic agriculture.
Most work will take place on the Food Bank’s 75 acres of production fields, but TFWA’s grant will fund independent plots where participants can select crops, apply classroom lessons and grow produce for both the jail and the community.
A notable detail of this project? It’s the first agriculture-based horticulture program in the Texas Criminal Justice System’s Windham School District partnering with an external nonprofit. The San Antonio Food Bank received $5,000 from the TFWA.
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