With so much uncertainty concerning the state of local economies, businesses and the livelihood of so many due to the COVID-19 crisis, many people are wondering what or who will fill in the gap?
That is the “necessity” gap, caused by the significant setback in employment and a dire need for aid and assistance in several aspects of the Washington County community.
Not to mention, the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Washington County and the state of Mississippi.
Community Foundation of Washington County (CFWC) executive director Terri Lane will tell anyone, it will take the entire community and every facet of the community to stand in the gap.
Lane explained the impact COVID-19 has had on the community is why the CFWC established the COVID-19 Community Relief Fund over four weeks ago.
“We felt like there needed to be a safe, secure and transparent place for folks to give,” she said. “The crisis was just beginning and nobody really knew at that time what was going to happen; we just knew there were going to be needs in our community people would want to support, but they wouldn’t necessarily know where to go or who to support in some cases.”
The CFWC board of trustees stepped up and decided for every dollar raised for the relief fund, the CFWC would match it dollar for dollar, up to $10,000 — an opportunity, which allows donors to double their money if they decided to support the cause.
“We knew we wanted to quickly and flexibly infuse money into the community through our partner non-profits, faith-based organizations, schools and government agencies,” Lane said, noting it was an important task for CFWC even if it wasn’t crystal clear who would need help.
She highlighted that even on a normal day, not considering the ongoing crisis, many of the CFWC’s nonprofits are stretched to capacity.
With that in mind, Lane said the CFWC knew it had to step up and play a role in helping connect folks to funding resources and volunteers through the Delta Volunteer Hub.
“We wanted to help our organizations be responsive to what we believed was going to be an increased need in their services,” she said.
To date, the CFWC has awarded, $14,250 to local, regional and statewide organizations that are doing COVID-19 relief here in Washington County.
Two statewide organizations, which concentrate on the food sourcing and food distribution business — Extra Table and the Mississippi Food Network, are supported by the CFWC as they partner with Hearty Helpings Food Pantry in Greenville.
“So while we funded some statewide organizations, those dollars are resulting in food coming back to serve the residents in Washington County,” Lane said. “They (volunteer drivers for the organizations) have brought back over 18,000 pounds of food for Hearty Helpings Food Pantry, the Leland Food Pantry and St. Vincent de Paul.”
Fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs and yogurt are among the several food items distributed to the local food pantries.
Lane emphasized how the CFWC, volunteers via the Delta Volunteer Hub, in addition to partnerships with the local food pantries were vital to the process of getting food distributed to the various places.
“The more we work together and the more we combine resources, the better off we can serve the most vulnerable and the most at-risk in our community,” she said.
The CFWC also partnered with the Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist Church food pantry, which does a monthly food distribution through their food pantry.
Lane highlighted two Saturdays ago, the church distributed 243 boxes of food to families in need from their Greenville church location.
Through its partnership with the CFWC, grant funds and volunteers, Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist church did a pop-up pantry in Hollandale on Saturday, which served 269 families in roughly 40 minutes.
With Hollandale not having a food pantry, Lane said the effort was due to the church and the CFWC coming together with the common idea in mind — “We need to figure out how we can serve them.”
Delta Eats, a program under the umbrella of the Delta Health Alliance, is another partnership the CFWC has seen yield great results as the coordinator distributed fresh picked greens from the Sanders Elementary garden in Hollandale to include in the food boxes.
Lane described the past three weeks of collaborating with local organizations to aid in meeting the needs of residents as having been “the most exciting three weeks” since COVID-19 made its mark.
“I am so proud of our community foundation and our board of trustees because they were able to step into a space being flexible, nimble and responsive to the needs as they have come up day by day, week by week,” Lane said.
“I have the ability to work with my board and other nonprofits in this community as we have adjusted the way we do business in a very nontraditional way and very unprecedented time.”
Regardless of those adjustments, Lane said they’ve been able to be reactive, responsive and serve the greatest need.
“That’s what makes me so proud about what we’re doing,” she said.
The CFWC completed round four of its rapid response mini-grant process, but is hoping for more of the community’s help and support in its endeavor to raise a $10,000 match that would make it possible for them to give away $20,000 in grants.
Those grants ultimately make it possible to continue serving some of the direst needs of residents in Washington County and those needs carry no expiration date.
Those who wish to support the CFWC by making a donation can do so on the CFWC’s secure website, cfwashco.org, designating his or her donation to the COVID-19 Community Relief Fund or by simply mailing the contribution to the Community Foundation of Washington County, P.O. Box 5910, Greenville, MS 38704.
The CFWC’s asks that all donations made to the CFWC are made with “COVID-19 Community Relief Fund” in the memo line.
