Current Initiatives
The Foundation has a pulse on emerging issues that affect life in central Ohio. In order to share these important issues, we have created Critical Need Alerts and a Community Improvement Project. Critical Need Alerts give you the opportunity to partner with the Foundation and make an immediate impact in the lives of local residents regarding a current pressing issue. Our Community Improvement Project is targeted toward achieving measurable community improvement in a local area or regarding a local issue over time. In each case, we invite you to share in an investment that will improve the overall quality of life in central Ohio.
Critical Need Alert: Acute Shortage of Food
Southeast Ohio—Rural Appalachia
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An acute shortage of food is having a major impact on the food distribution system in southeast Ohio—the foodbank and the food pantries are running low and several pantries have closed because they do not have food. The region where this need is particularly acute is among the 10 rural Appalachian counties of Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Morgan, Perry, Vinton, and Washington.
The poverty rate in these counties exceeds 30 percent, the unemployment rate is in double digits, and 1/3 of all residents are served by food pantries. Food stamps are adequate to feed a family for only 2 to 2.5 weeks. To feed their loved ones, families need either sufficient income to support food purchases or donated food to supplement what they can afford to buy.
 Our Response
To help alleviate this acute food shortage, please consider making a contribution to the Emergency Hunger Relief Fund for Southeast Ohio of The Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, so that they can direct grants to the most appropriate local providers. A contribution can be made from your donor advised fund, or a check can be sent to The Columbus Foundation with the gift designated for the Hunger Relief for Southeast Ohio Fund. You can make a credit card gift to this fund by clicking on the fund name. If you wish for us to forward a contribution from your donor advised fund to the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio for this purpose, contact Katie Brennan at 614/251-4000 or kbrennan@columbusfoundation.org.
Concurrent with this effort to raise dollars to support the purchase of food for this region, The Columbus Foundation is raising funds to support the expanded use of The Benefit Bank (TBB) in these 10 rural counties. Expanding The Benefit Bank will help this region strengthen its infrastructure to address some of these short-term needs and build a stronger safety-net for the future.
Your Support Counts
The foodbank serving this region needs both nonperishable and perishable food. One truckload of each of the following 11 nonperishable items is needed: juice, canned fruits and vegetables (total of 3 different items), grains/pasta, cereal, proteins (canned tuna and chicken, peanut butter, canned beans), and rice. The cost for nonperishable items is approximately $272,000. Two truckloads of each of the following perishable items are needed each month: apples, potatoes, onions, cabbage, and carrots. The approximate cost for perishable items is: $457,000.
For additional information about these efforts to address the acute shortage of food in southeast Ohio, please contact Lisa Courtice at 614/251-4000 or lcourtic@columbusfoundation.org.
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Critical Need Alert: Helping the Working Poor
The Benefit Bank
Meeting life’s basic needs—food, shelter, and health—is a challenge for low-income working individuals and families. No matter how hard they work, they still fall short of the financial means and needed resources to live a quality life.
Many families are struggling more than others simply because they're not receiving the benefits they should. In Ohio, more than $1.2 billion in assistance, which families are qualified to receive, go unclaimed annually.
The Benefit Bank is an internet-based, counselor-assisted program offered by Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks. The Benefit Bank helps individuals overcome obstacles and take advantage of benefits that will strengthen their economic condition, including childcare subsidy and federal and state taxes.
Our Response
Together, The Columbus Foundation family works to fight poverty in our community by supporting The Benefit Bank, a highly effective, proven, national program, to central Ohio. Local individuals and families can learn about the benefits available to them, and we join in efforts to reduce poverty in America.
Your Support Counts
Your gift will result in many benefits for the community, including fewer people going hungry, more people being able to afford health insurance, fewer home foreclosures, and a stronger economy. For more information regarding the impact of this program please read The Benefit Bank Status Report.