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End Hunger Connecticut! (EHC!) is excited to announce it was awarded a $250,000 innovation grant from ACME Market Foundation’s Nourishing Neighbors community relief initiative. The initiative includes almost $4 million for 13 large grants as part of Nourishing Neighbors’ new innovation grant program, which awards grants to organizations with innovative projects or new ideas for eradicating hunger.
Grant recipients were selected from more than 500 applicants by a committee consisting of Albertsons Companies Foundation staff, board members, and the Foundation’s five partner organizations. The Nourishing Neighbors commuity relief initiative was established earlier this year with a $53 million commitment from Albertsons Companies.
EHC! will use the grant funds to create a ‘Cooperative Purchasing Program for Pantries,’ a buying group for community-based food pantries, soup kitchens, and other nonprofits throughout Connecticut to provide contracted pricing for the approximately 30 percent of their food needs not covered by the existing Food Bank or donation process. Collectivizing the pantries’ retail purchases will leverage their buying power to securing pricing contracts with regional food wholesalers, saving the pantries money on their purchased goods, creating efficient buying practices, and introducing best practices among pantries for ordering, storing and distributing product.
“We are thrilled that our efforts here in Connecticut working with food pantries to improve the emergency food supply system have been recognized by the ACME’s Nourishing Neighbors initiative,” said EHC! Executive Director Robin Lamott Sparks. “This new program will help nonprofits and communities better address food insecurity by creating a system that will complement the great work being done by the existing food banks. We must ensure that none of our friends and neighbors are going hungry.”
EHC! is dedicated to eradicating hunger and promoting healthy nutrition through outreach, public education, and advocacy. EHC! enhances the visibility and coordination of food assistance programs crucial to any effort to improve food security by partnering with several state and local officials, schools, and community-based organizations. This innovation grant project is the first of its kind in Connecticut and engages multiple key partners eager to break ground.
“End Hunger CT! has been a great partner in tackling food insecurity across the state, especially in response to COVID-19. This grant award will build on those efforts and increase the purchasing power of local pantries to better respond to their communities,” said Connecticut State Department of Agriculture Commissioner Bryan P. Hurlburt. “It’s an innovative and powerful proposal, and I congratulate Nourishing Neighbors for understanding the value of this proposal to the food pantries and to EHC! for their continued efforts to ensure families have access to food.”
The Nourishing Neighbors Innovation Grants were awarded to organizations that:
- Had new or innovative ideas or projects
- Had ideas that are scalable to other organizations
- Are wide-reaching in impact for individuals or large groups
- Have the capability to carry out the concept
“This is the inaugural round of Nourishing Neighbors Innovation Grants,” said Jim Perkins, President of ACME Markets. “It’s encouraging to see organizations like End Hunger Connecticut! offer innovative solutions for hunger. We’re excited to see their ideas come to fruition.”
What others are saying:
Dina Sears-Graves, Vice President of Community Impact, United Way of Southeastern Connecticut
“United Way of Southeastern Connecticut is so excited to hear that End Hunger CT! received a grant for the Cooperative Purchasing Program for Pantries. As an organization that operates the Gemma E. Moran United Way/Labor Food Center, a food bank for New London County, we see the difficulties that pantries have in sourcing food.
Small and large agencies often struggle with meeting the minimum required amount in order to receive a discounted price and even when they do, they often don’t have the storage capacity. This will solve the issue of bulk purchasing and the Food Center is committed to assisting in storing these items in our warehouse for the agencies that we serve.
If there is anything that this pandemic has taught us is that we all need to think differently, especially when it comes to getting food out to those in need.”
Margaret Tjimos Goldberg, Executive Director for Neighbor to Neighbor, Greenwich
“EHC!’s dedicated efforts and clear-minded focus have provided a platform of consistent messaging throughout this COVID crisis and addressed the severe needs within our communities for food assistance and the challenges of supply and distribution. Most importantly, EHC! identified avenues of opportunity to help and respond during these unprecedented times. Neighbor to Neighbor is privileged to be a partner with EHC!, and we can now prepare for next steps in an anticipated recovery period.”
Jill Meyerhoff, Executive Director for FISH of Greater New Haven/Pantry to Pantry
“Having a Cooperative Purchasing Program for Pantries in Connecticut will help make shopping, ordering, and receiving a delivery a breeze. This is the shopping gap that food pantries have been waiting for to help better serve their communities and clients in need.”
About us: End Hunger CT! works statewide to eliminate hunger and promote healthy nutrition through outreach, public education, and advocacy. EHC! offers SNAP assistance, nutrition program promotion, doubles SNAP at farmers’ markets, and more to help CT residents in need. To learn more about our services, click here.
Have any questions? Contact our Communications Coordinator, Kimberly Nguyen, at knguyen@endhungerct.org.
