Blowing Rock Cares Food Pantry Grants Received in 2020

In 2020, Blowing Rock Cares Food Pantry has applied for a total of five grants. Of these, four have received funding. The following paragraphs describe the funding received and the focus of the grants that were funded this year.

We applied in late July for a grant from the Salem Presbytery Domestic Hunger Program. We were notified in early November that we had been awarded funding in the amount of $1,000. Funds from this grant will help cover the costs of our participation with Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Food4Families project. This project provides both perishable and nonperishable food to families whose children attend Blowing Rock School and receive free/reduced cost meals at school during the school year. Food distribution through this project typically occurs each year between early June and mid-August. Blowing Rock Cares Food Pantry has provided the nonperishable food for this project since summer 2018.

We applied in early August for a special funding grant in the amount of $1,000 from the Tour of Homes Project at St. Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church in Blowing Rock. This year’s Tour of Homes Project had to be canceled because of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. St. Mary of the Hills decided to attempt a special temporary fund-raising effort in lieu of the traditional project. We have received notice that we were awarded funding in the amount of $1,500. These funds will be applied toward the purchase of a freezer for the pantry, which will allow us to store and distribute frozen perishable food as a regular part of the food items we distribute to our client families.

We applied in September for a grant from the Women’s Fund of the Blue Ridge. We received notification on 11/16/20 that the grant had been accepted for funding in the amount of $2,590. Funds from this grant will help cover the costs of two pilot projects in 2021. These are, 1) a trial expansion of our holiday food program to include an Easter meal for Pantry client families and families whose children attend Blowing Rock School and receive free/reduced cost meals at school during the school year, and 2) a trial expansion of the Food4Families project (noted in the Salem Presbytery Domestic Hunger Program grant report, above) by one or two delivery dates. This is intended to provide these families more access to supplemental food between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next school year.

We applied in late September/early October for a grant from the Blowing Rock Community Foundation. We were notified recently that we had been awarded an amount of $1,000. These funds will be applied toward the cost of a refrigerator for the pantry, which will allow us to store refrigerated perishable food, including some produce, as a regular part of the food items we distribute to our client families.

We are grateful for this funding support from within and outside of the Blowing Rock Community. We consider it to be a vote of confidence for the work we do with and for families in this community and Watauga County, and for how we go about doing that work.

Grants Committee: Jane Rogers, Dennis Norris, Don Rives, and Tim Harris