Recognizing that residents in its home community continue to face serious economic challenges, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation today announced six special, year-end grants totaling $600,000 to help maintain important safety-net services in Genesee County. The grants will be made to:
Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties: two grants totaling $195,000 to enable the North End Soup Kitchen (NESK) to continue offering two hot daily meals, and to help support a winter “warming” center near downtown Flint;
The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan: $125,000 to offer low-cost, high-protein food items, such as meat and peanut butter, to area food pantries and to buy a forklift to assist with product storage and handling in the food bank’s warehouse;
Catholic Outreach of Flint: $120,000 to transport seriously ill children in Genesee County to medical appointments;
The Salvation Army of Genesee County: $100,000 to assist county residents with rent and utility payments that will enable them to remain in their homes; and
Resource Genesee: $60,000 to supply critical support services to area homeless and near-homeless individuals and families.
“Here at home and throughout the United States, people are challenged on multiple fronts to meet their families’ most basic needs,” said William S. White, president and CEO of the Mott Foundation. “These grants cannot provide permanent solutions to local hunger, homelessness and unemployment, but they can help alleviate some of the immediate hardships that families in Genesee County are facing and provide them with a measure of security and stability at a difficult time.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 21 percent of Genesee County’s population and 31 percent of area children under the age of 18 live at or below the federal poverty level. The Michigan Department of Education reports that nearly 82 percent of students attending Flint schools qualify for free or reduced lunches.
The Foundation’s commitment to its home community is reflected in the more than $758 million that it has invested in the greater Flint area over the past 84 years – $24 million last year alone. In addition to emergency and supportive services, that funding has included grants for educational and cultural programs; economic and downtown development; job training; and public safety.
The new cluster of grants is going to agencies that have received Mott support in the past, and several will help to sustain year-round programs, such as two hot meals provided daily by NESK.
Those meals serve an ever-growing number of residents, including children, who otherwise would likely go without enough food, says Jon Manse, community service director for Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties.
In 2011, the agency’s three soup kitchens, including NESK, provided 128,000 hot meals, while its three sack lunch programs served more than 42,000 meals. Both reflect a ten percent increase over 2010 figures.”
Without the support of Mott, our services would be drastically cut, fewer clients would be fed, and our food shelves would be near empty. We are grateful to the Foundation for its help now and over the years,” said Manse.
The country’s difficult economic climate has led a growing number of families, including many who have not previously needed safety-net services, to seek help from local nonprofits.
“Needs like hunger and homelessness don’t only affect our cities – they also exist in our suburban and rural communities,” said Lindsey Younger, president and CEO of Resource Genesee.
“With the support of the C.S. Mott Foundation, we’re able to meet some of those needs for families throughout Genesee County.”
Mott, established in 1926 by an automotive pioneer, is a private philanthropy committed to supporting projects that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society. It supports nonprofit programs throughout the U.S. and, on a limited geographic basis, internationally. Grantmaking is focused in four programs: Civil Society, Environment, Flint Area and Pathways Out of Poverty. Besides Flint, offices are located in metropolitan
Detroit, Johannesburg (South Africa) and London. The Foundation, with 2011 year-end assets of approximately $2.13 billion, made 456 grants totaling $89.3 million. For more information, visit www.mott.org.
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