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Winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund - April 29, 2008
Jill Hoxmeier Honored with $5,000 Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund Award
April 29, 2008

Whitefish, Montana Resident Wins Cash Award To Create Sustainable Garden Program To Educate And Nourish Her Community


(New York, NY, April 29, 2008) Whitefish, Montana resident Jill Hoxmeier, 26, is one step closer to fulfilling her dream of creating a better tomorrow for her community. Jill was named this week’s winner of the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund, a weekly $5,000 cash award program from Avon Products, Inc. to support individuals in their work to empower women. Jill’s award will be used to create Rail Town Community Garden, a community project to provide women with the resources – both knowledge and materials – to grow their own sustainable and healthy foods to provide sustenance for their families.

Many in Jill’s town of Whitefish do not have the resources to properly feed their families. In the community of less than 7,000 residents, one in thirty-five is served by the local food bank. Wages remain low as living costs continue to rise, and women have limited options and opportunities to contribute to the financial well being of their families. Jill believes there is insufficient attention paid to the serious poverty issue in Whitefish, and one result is the increasing difficulty families have in trying to eat healthily. A resource to help the women provide food for their families would both help solve this problem and instill a sense of self-sufficiency and self-esteem. The results from this type of work would be not only tangible and nutritious, but also the foundation for a sustainable community.

Jill has spent many years involved with activities that serve vulnerable sectors of the community. Most recently she worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guyana. Jill spent two years developing creative ways to teach women and girls to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS, instructing life skills courses, and helping to build stronger mother/daughter relationships. In all her experiences, however, Jill found that no amount of formal curriculum could compete with the self-sufficiency and confidence that comes from producing one’s own food and feeding one’s family. Jill notes, “I witnessed the empowerment that occurs when people are given a chance to grow their own food,” and she wishes to share this experience and knowledge with the community back in America in which she is currently resides.

Jill will utilize her Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund award to create the Rail Town Community Garden, a first-come, first-served program that will bring nutritious food, self-sufficiency and sustainable skills to the women of Whitefish and their families. Through the Rail Town Community Garden project, Jill will provide women of any age with a plot of land and the knowledge and skills to produce their own food. She will utilize the award money to cover the costs of materials such as fencing, seeds, soil, and tools. A small portion of the funds will be used to cover instructors for skill-development courses such as gardening, pruning, canning, and other topics. Jill believes that the project will be fully sustainable by its second year, and a nominal fee will be charged to renters in year two to help keep the program operating. Through the Rail Town Community Garden, Jill’s efforts will empower 50 women in need and directly help their families with tangible support.

Jill’s winning application to the Avon Hello Tomorrow Fund met the criteria of clearly presenting unique and achievable objectives to empower women or girls and ultimately improve society. It was selected from a pool of strong contenders by an expert panel of judges, including personal finance expert, Suze Orman, actress Phylicia Rashad and Sarah Ferguson, The Duchess of York. “Bravo,” noted Fund judge Phylicia Rashad of Jill’s proposal. “In this technological age of economic surges and fallings off – empowerment through the return to basics! Wonderful!”

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