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United Way Awards Nearly $230,000 in Grants to Fight
Food-Insecurity
Special to The Truth
This week, United Way of Greater Toledo (UWGT) is announcing
that $228,590 in grants will be awarded to 17
community-based organizations across Lucas, Wood and Ottawa
counties who are working to combat food-insecurity in the
region.
“COVID-19 has created an unprecedented demand for food
resources locally,” said Wendy Pestrue, president & CEO of
UWGT.
“Countless entities who supply children, individuals and
families with nutritional support are doing their best to
serve those struggling, despite rising unemployment rates.
What these organizations truly need are dollars to move
their work forward, and I am proud to say that United Way is
here to help in that effort.”
The following organizations will be receiving monetary
grants through UWGT’s Emergency Response Fund, established
shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak. The goal of this fund
is to address ongoing, emergency community needs in the
health and human services space.
Mobile Meals of Toledo $25,000 – YMCA of Greater Toledo
$25,000 – The University Church $21,000 – Toledo GROWs
$20,000 – Perrysburg Schools / Perrysburg Heights Community
Center / Islamic Center of Greater Toledo collaboration
$20,000 – Greater Grace Christian Church $18,000 – The
Mareda Center $16,650 – ProMedica’s Ebeid Institute $16,380
– Mosaic Ministries of South Toledo “4-1-Dine” $12,000 –
First United Methodist Church (Bowling Green) $10,560 – Food
For Thought $10,000 – Brown Bag Food Project $10,000 –
Lutheran Social Services of Northwestern Ohio $7,500 –
Ottawa County Family Advocacy Center $5,000 – Church of
Truth Ministries $5,000 – Down Syndrome Association of
Greater Toledo $4,500 – Sofia Quintero Art & Cultural Center
$2,000.
Programs that dollars will help expand include emergency
food boxes, distributing vegetable plants, meal kit delivery
for Seniors and increased pantry-food support to name a few.
“One of our most-treasured assets here at United Way is our
volunteers. Our Collaborative Impact Cabinet is a collection
of residents, with varying professional expertise, who
represent the interests of those we serve across Lucas, Wood
and Ottawa County,” said Pestrue.
“United Way simply provides the table for discussion, but
our amazing and dedicated Collaborative Impact Cabinet
volunteers make the official funding decisions. This
approach is more than a policy at our organization – it’s a
best practice. To truly serve the community well, we need
their input.”
In addition to the $228,590 outlined above, UWGT has also
allocated $83,500 for weekend snack bags, which have been
given directly to Connecting Kids to Meals. As of today,
UWGT’s volunteers (in small, socially distant groups) have
packed 26,000 weekend snack bags, via 6,000+ service hours,
since March 17.
“On March 13, I began receiving calls from a handful of
community partners who were very worried about food
stability in our region, as whispers of layoffs and
school-closures began circulating because of COVID-19. Since
then, our staff and volunteers have been hard-at-work
helping those in need,” said Pestrue.
Since the Emergency Response Fund’s establishment, hundreds
of individual donors and nearly 40 corporate partners,
businesses and community institutions have given to UWGT,
totaling just over $650,000.
“I can’t thank our community enough for the generous
support. Food is just phase-one of our approach. Soon, we
will need to work towards addressing the next most-pressing
issue, which will be done through data, community studies
and gathering expertise from our partners.”
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