WCCF announces $250,000 grant to Food Helpers

For the MVI

The Washington County Community Foundation awarded a $250,000 matching grant to Food Helpers, the new umbrella organization for the Greater Washington County Food Bank. 

In July, Food Helpers initiated its new Community Outreach Program, which was specially designed to help the working poor, whose household income is just slightly above the income guidelines for the county-funded pantry system and other government food assistance programs.

“According to data released by Feeding America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about 26,000 individuals in Washington County are food insecure, but approximately 9,600 of these food-insecure individuals are not eligible for government-subsidized feeding programs. That’s 9,600 individuals in Washington County who experience hunger at some point during the month. These are the primary individuals that we seek to assist with our new Community Outreach Program,” said Connie Burd, executive director of Food Helpers. 

“To initiate the program, Food Helpers used $100,000 from its unrestricted reserves to purchase food for the program. We anticipate that food will last for four to six months serving 13 sites throughout the county, once per quarter, on a rotating basis. To be able to continue the program, and hopefully to serve each site once per month, we have launched a fundraising campaign to raise $500,000 for the Community Outreach Program.”

In fall 2019, the WCCF learned of Food Helpers’ plans to increase its services to serve rural and under-served areas of the county, targeting those who are slightly above the income threshold for the county-funded pantry system.  The program was of immediate interest to the foundation; however, the pandemic and other matters postponed the initiation of the new Community Outreach Program for the food-insecure until July 2021.  

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