Coalition for Compassion and Justice Wins Walmart Grant with Support of CNCS!

VISTA member Carl Grimes packing up food
at 9/11 Day of Service

Thanks to a partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the Coalition for Compassion and Justice's Weekend Family Food project has been chosen as a recipient of the Wal-Mart State giving grant.  The Deputy Director of Corporate Relations at CNCS, Rhonda Taylor, helped connect AmeriCorps VISTA member Carl Grimes with the state giving program. The award totaled $35,000 and will allow the project to continue many months past its original expiration date. 

Weekend Family Food is a project of the Coalition for Compassion and Justices’ Open Door program and coordinated by Carl. Every week Weekend Family Food provides bags of groceries filled with nutritious foods to nearly 470 food-insecure children ages birth to five who are at high risk of going hungry over the weekend.

The grant opportunity came about when Yavapai County VISTA Program Director Maggie Garvey was informed by CNCS about the Wal-Mart State Giving grant. She contacted Carl and his site supervisor Gerry Garvey about the opportunity. After they attended a conference call summarizing the grant it was quickly decided that the project fell within the grant’s focus area, and an application was submitted soon after. In November Carl received an E-mail notifying him that the project had been chosen to receive funding. A check for $35,000 was received a few weeks later.

Originally Weekend Family Food was set to expire in February due to limited funding; however, thanks to the grant the project will be able to continue until the end of the school year. So far the grant has been used to purchase a van and a climate controlled storage unit. Both of which these will make the project more efficient and effective at getting food to low income children.