Hartford Foundation Awards $263,000 in Grants to Support Food Programs, Other Basic Services

Second Round of 2022 Emergency Assistance Grants Awarded to 27 Greater Hartford Nonprofits

In the midst of the nationwide formula shortage of spring and summer 2022, North End Little Pantries, a mutual aid effort in Hartford where residents share and receive food, recognized the need to support parents with infants and started to collect and distribute formula to local families. They utilized social media to locate and purchase hard-to-find formula brands for infants with specific dietary needs, serving at least 200 families. The group also started receiving requests for diapers, so they began providing those as well. To assist in this effort, North End Little Pantries applied for a $10,000 Emergency Basic Human Needs grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to support the purchase and storage of formula and diapers as well as transportation and community outreach.

“We have seen how challenging it continues to be for many families to afford baby formula and diapers for their children,” said Joanna Iovino, program director for North End Little Pantries. “We have been gratified to receive so much support for this work which really is about racial and economic justice in a community which lacks access to the resources families need to thrive. This grant from the Hartford Foundation will allow us to purchase and distribute larger quantities of these necessities and serve more North End families.”

North End Little Pantries was one of 27 nonprofit organizations receiving more than $263,000 in grants to provide food and other basic human needs to residents throughout Greater Hartford. This year, the Foundation established a new approach to its annual Basic Human Needs Emergency Assistance grants to create a more open and equitable application process that involves two rounds of grantmaking. In prior years, all emergency assistance grants were awarded only in the fall, but emergency assistance nonprofits provided feedback that having access to funds earlier in the year would help them in planning and meeting community need. In July, the Foundation awarded more than $400,000 to 50 nonprofit providers of basic human needs services.

These Emergency Assistance grants focus on increasing access to food and addressing immediate needs such as personal care items (e.g., deodorant, diapers), utility assistance, and other needs essential to wellbeing. This grant opportunity prioritizes nonprofits that serve neighborhoods and towns in the region with a higher percentage of residents living in poverty, seek to reduce barriers to equitable access to basic needs and provide direct support to clients. Grants are made using an equity lens, acknowledging that many of these issues have a disproportionate impact on people of color.

The twenty-seven grants recommended are in alignment with the Foundation’s strategic goals to advance equitable social and economic mobility and help to dismantle structural racism in Greater Hartford. The grants would contribute to advancing the Basic Human Needs team’s long-term outcome of “Greater Hartford residents having improved physical and emotional wellbeing.”

These grants support both regional and local agencies in Greater Hartford. Grants range between $3,000 and $20,000 and are primarily funded through the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation as well as the Foundation’s discretionary funding.

Of the 27 grants:

• Seventeen are primarily for food assistance or food access ($139,500)
• Seven are for immediate emergency aid (which might include food, but also included rental assistance, and personal care items) to be provided in a state of crisis ($89,000)
• Two are for clothing, shoes, and diapers ($24,000)
• One is for case management ($11,000)

“When individuals and families cannot afford to pay for groceries, housing, medical care or other basic necessities, it is incredibly challenging for children to perform in school or adults to go to work each and every day,” said Hartford Foundation Senior Community Investments Officer Cierra Stancil. “Providing for the most basic of human needs helps individuals and families stabilize themselves on their way toward upward social and economic mobility.”

Second round 2022 BASIC HUMAN NEEDS GRANTS

See first round of 2022 Emergency Assistance Grants

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is the community foundation for Hartford and 28 surrounding towns. Through partnerships, the Foundation seeks to strengthen communities in Greater Hartford by putting philanthropy in action to dismantle structural racism and achieve equity in social and economic mobility. Made possible by the gifts of generous individuals, families and organizations, the Foundation has awarded grants of more than $894 million since its founding in 1925. For more information, visit www.hfpg.org or call 860-548-1888.