PROVIDENCE – Dozens of food pantries and meal sites across the Ocean State will receive $1 million in emergency grants from the Rhode Island Foundation to help feed those affected by the loss of SNAP funding on Nov. 1.
“We are set up to meet moments like this. By working with our network of community partners, we are able to put our funding to work quickly and efficiently to feed neighbors who have been coping with the prospect of going hungry,” said David Cicilline, CEO and president.
The largest grant of $200,000 will go to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank, which manages 130 food pantries and meal sites across the state. Another $100,000 is going to the Elisha Project, which delivered more than two-and-a-half million pounds of food from Warren to Woonsocket last year.
The state’s network of seven community action program agencies, including the Community Action Partnership of Providence County, the East Bay Community Action Program and the Tri-County Community Action Program; will receive a portion of the funding, along with dozens of nonprofits that provide food, such as Good Neighbors in East Providence, Connecting for Children and Families in Woonsocket and the North Kingstown Food Pantry.
“Even before this latest crisis, hunger was increasing as Rhode Islanders lost jobs and access to crucial services due to cuts from Washington,” Cicilline said. “Although Rhode Island is rising to this urgent challenge, state government and the philanthropic sector will not be able fill the gap for long. So, we hope the public will join us in helping to keep food on the tables for our neighbors throughout the state until Washington meets its obligation to fund SNAP.”
The emergency grants are in addition to $150,000 in funding that the foundation already had planned to distribute through its Basic Human Needs grant program. The organization expects to announce an additional round of emergency grants before the end of the month funded in part by donations from the public.
“Rhode Island is a tight-knit community - a community that helps each other in time of crisis,” Governor Daniel J. McKee said. “We are lucky to have the Rhode Island Foundation meet the SNAP food emergency head on by delivering financial support in every corner of the state, and we thank them for their leadership. No child in Rhode Island should go to bed hungry.”
In addition to the emergency grants, the Foundation is leveraging community support through creative partnerships. It will match every donation the public makes to Trinity Repertory Company’s Annual Fund during this year’s run of “A Christmas Carol” with an equal grant to the Food Bank, up to a total of $50,000. The public can trigger the matching grants by contributing to Trinity Rep online at trinityrep.com/match or by texting SCROOGE to 44-321.
Veer Mudambi is the Special Projects Editor of the Providence Business News. He can be reached at mudambi@pbn.com.
