Give Where You Live NKY giving circle members gave $6,000 to Florence-based GO Pantry in a process that took less than an hour.
The grant continues a year of quarterly meetings that have, since launching, brought more than $60,000 in awards from the giving circle’s members to Northern Kentucky nonprofits.
“On behalf of our giving circle members, we congratulate Laura Dumancic and her team at GO Pantry,” said Horizon Community Funds President Nancy Grayson. “I think this was a great reminder for our members, and we hope for the entire community, that hunger is an issue throughout our three counties. Food insecurity is not limited to urban centers, and is in fact just as widely experienced in other communities here in Northern Kentucky.”
Give Where You Live NKY is a joint initiative presented by Horizon Community Funds of Northern Kentucky and Mueller Financial, Inc., and its format lends itself to busy community members who are looking for an easy way to give back to nonprofits that serve Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties.
The support of Give Where You Live NKY is an encouraging representation of just how much our community wants to help our NKY kids in need,” said GO Pantry Executive Director and Co-founder Laura Dumancic.
“People are continually surprised at the level of poverty and hunger in our community. Working with over 40 NKY schools, we can sadly attest to the fact that there are kids in every school who truly struggle to meet basic food needs. We are extremely grateful for this $6,000 award. This grant will help to re-stock the warehouse in preparation for the opening of the new school year. After packing 5,000 Summer GO Boxes, the warehouse will be depleted. The proceeds from this grant will be used to purchase items need to fill weekend GO Bags for distribution in August/September. We anticipate packing GO Bags for over 800 kids each week. Your support will help the kids start the school year strong.”
GO Pantry is a 501(c)3 non-profit outreach program providing food for hungry local children on days that schools are not open. GO Pantry provides weekend food bags (GO BAGS) during the school year and food boxes (GO BOXES) to help over extended breaks from school.
The remaining 2021 Give Where You Live NKY meetings will be held on September 16 at Wooden Cask Brewery in Newport, and December 9 at Molly Malone’s in Covington — both on Thursdays, both from 6-7 p.m.
“We are thrilled to see GO Pantry win the funds a second time,” said Mueller Financial Partner Woody Mueller. “This is the first time in Give Where You Live NKY’s history that a nonprofit has won twice. This shows the community’s passion towards caring for children and we know the funds will be well spent.”
The giving circle runs on a tight schedule at each meeting. Participating members nominate a nonprofit of their choice, and three names are randomly selected and briefly discussed by the group. The members then vote on their favorite of the three organizations, and each member contributes $100 for the grant to the winning organization. All takes place in under an hour, just four times per year.
The format of Give Where You Live NKY also provides a way to connect funds to nonprofits without the need for nonprofits to expend financial resources and staff time on fundraising. The previous winners of Give Where You Live grants include The Scheben Care Center in Florence; The Gateway Community and Technical College Foundation, which has campus sites across Northern Kentucky; Lucky Tales Rescue in Fort Thomas; Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Covington; Northern Kentucky Children’s Advocacy Center in Florence; Family Nurturing Center in Florence; GO Pantry in Florence; The Barracks Project in Covington; Covington Partners in Covington; Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky in Covington; and, Esperanza Latino Center of Northern Kentucky in Covington.
The community can get involved by reaching out to Tess Brown at tbrown@horizonfunds.org or 859.620.8221, or by visiting www.nkygives.org.
