SEMO Food Bank receives $5K grant from CFO for COVID-19 response

The Community Foundation of the Ozarks awarded its second round of COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund grants totaling $80,000 for seven regional nonprofit agencies. This week's grants include $5,000 for the Southeast Missouri Food Bank to support mobile food pantries in the Cape Girardeau area, which is served by the Cape Area Community Foundation.

The CFO announced an initial commitment of $1 million on March 20 for discretionary grantmaking by the CFO and its regional affiliate foundations. This commitment was made possible by CFO and affiliate discretionary funds, the Missouri Foundation for Health, and the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation, managed by Commerce Trust. Since then, individual donors and other funders have contributed nearly $230,000 to the COVID-19 and related funds.

In addition to this commitment, the CFO’s donor advisors — people who establish charitable funds with the CFO and advise how they would like to direct their giving — have granted more than $700,000 to nonprofit organizations affected by COVID-19 issues. Several businesses have opened benevolence or disaster-relief funds to assist furloughed employees.

In all, the CFO has granted about $920,000 through these combined efforts to support nonprofits working on or affected by COVID-19-related issues. Gifts can be made at cfozarks.org/donate. The CFO is covering processing fees for gifts made by credit card through June 30, 2020.

The COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund grants are supporting nonprofit agencies directly involved in addressing regional needs, particularly for vulnerable citizens, such as seniors, those with food insecurity or health needs. This week’s grants were awarded to:

• Council of Churches of the Ozarks: $10,000 for the Crosslines food pantry in Springfield.

• Discovery Center of Springfield: $40,000 to provide childcare for medical professionals.

• Fair Acres Family YMCA: $5,000 to provide childcare for essential employees in the Carthage area, which is served by the Carthage Community Foundation.

• Good Samaritan of the Ozarks: $6,300 for food-pantry support in the Waynesville and Fort Leonard Wood areas, which is served by the Meramec Regional Community Foundation.

• Ozarks Family YMCA: $5,000 to provide childcare for essential employees in Seymour, which is served by the Greater Seymour Area Foundation.

• Russell House Phelps County Family Crisis Services: $8,700 to provide emergency quarantine domestic violence shelter services in the Rolla area, which is served by the Meramec Regional Community Foundation.

Grant applications are accepted on a rolling basis with announcements anticipated weekly for the near future. The application process is open to nonprofits and IRS-equivalent organizations like faith and civic agencies. The CFO does not make grants directly to individuals.