WATERTOWN — The Northern New York (NNY) Community Foundation on May 26 announced nearly $10,000 in grant awards to support nonprofit organizations responding to the needs of thousands of North Country residents impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier in May, the foundation’s board of directors approved the additional grants from the COVID-19 Community Support Fund. […]
WATERTOWN — The Northern New York (NNY) Community Foundation on May 26 announced nearly $10,000 in grant awards to support nonprofit organizations responding to the needs of thousands of North Country residents impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier in May, the foundation’s board of directors approved the additional grants from the COVID-19 Community Support Fund. The Community Foundation established the support fund in March with an initial $50,000 in funding to rapidly address challenges across the region as the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic deepened. The fund has helped partner agencies and other nonprofit organizations in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties that work to support essential needs for thousands people.
In late March, the foundation announced initial grant awards totaling $30,000 to strengthen resources for essential needs identified by food pantries, soup kitchens, and school-based backpack programs not presently supported by government funding. Two recent grants awarded from the fund will support first responders, health-care workers, and retirement community residents.
A $1,000 grant to Gouverneur Central School will be used to help purchase supplies and materials to continue the production of personal protective equipment, or PPE. Since its local manufacturing effort began, the school has made and distributed 1,175 face shields for adult-care facilities and rehab centers, nursing homes, hospitals, rescue squads, and home-health aides. Demand for face shields is growing with multiple orders each day.
A portion of the grant funding for this award comes from the A. Eleanor Jackson Fund of the Community Foundation, which is designated to support programs, projects, and initiatives that impact the Gouverneur community.
A $600 grant to Ives Hill Retirement Community in Watertown, will help purchase two adult tricycles to provide opportunities for residents to safely exercise while practicing social distancing. The equipment will benefit the well-being of residents during quarantine restrictions.
The NNY Community Foundation also awarded additional grants totaling $8,125 to help strengthen food supplies in the region. The grant funding during this time of increased demand is essential for food pantries and non-government funded school pantry programs to help those organizations serve additional local residents in need, it noted.
The NNY Community Foundation matched grants to the Alexandria Bay Community Food Pantry, the Alexandria Bay United Methodist Church (UMC) Blessings Box, the Redwood Food Pantry, and the Reformed Church of the Thousand Isles through a partnership with the Foundation for Community Betterment — Alexandria Bay Chapter.
Organizations receiving grant awards to build critical food supplies include:
• ACR Health Pantry, Watertown
• Alexandria Bay Community Food Pantry
• Alexandria Bay United Methodist Church (UMC) Blessings Box
• Antwerp Food Pantry
• New Beginnings Food Pantry and Outreach, Madrid
• Ogdensburg City School District Snack Pack Program
• Parishville-Hopkinton Central School Backpack Program
• Redwood Food Pantry
• Reformed Church of the Thousand Isles
• St. John’s Episcopal Church Pantry, Ogdensburg
• Star Lake Area Community Food Pantry
• Tri-Town Food Pantry, North Lawrence
• USO Fort Drum
Nonprofit organizations serving residents in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties that wish to apply for funding from the Community Support Fund should contact Kraig Everard, the NNY Community Foundation’s director of stewardship and programs, at (315) 782-7110, or kraig@nnycf.org. In the coming months, the Community Foundation will continue to support emerging needs that surface as a result of the pandemic.
Corporate and community partners include the Renzi Foodservice Charitable Foundation, Morgia Wealth Management, Benefit Services Group, the Food Bank of Central New York, RBC Wealth Management, Brookfield Renewable, OBI Land Trust, and the Watertown Evening Rotary Charitable Fund.