The Springfield Rotary Foundation awards grants to nonprofits for projects that combat hunger, promote literacy, and otherwise serve our communities each year. We reaffirmed needs related to hunger and literacy as high priorities for our communities during our club’s most recent visioning process and in ensuing years. Our Club’s fund raising efforts through the Flag Service Program, Citrus Sales, and John Montgomery Memorial Fishing Tournament raised $35,300 during the 2019-2020 Rotary year. These funds allowed us to award $27,759 in grants at the end of May to help support 14 high-impact projects. Ten of the projects help combat hunger, which is extremely important given food insecurity during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, our grant to the Central Illinois Foodbank will help support the purchase of 12,000 pounds of nutritious dairy projects including milk (image above) for distribution to central Illinois counties. Four grants will promote literacy in our community. Our grant to Ridgely Elementary School will support the development of an at-home resource kit (image above) for every student at the school. The need for these at-home resources was reinforced during the pandemic when students had to shelter at home.

 

The monies we raised also allow us to set aside support for annual funding commitments for: 

The majority of our funds support local organizations that work every day to help people in our community in numerous ways. Our grants are especially important this year given the hardships associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. When we are able to meet in person, we will invite the grant recipients to be our guests for dinner at a club meeting so we can thank these organizations for their work in the community and celebrate their grant projects. Click on "Read More" to see the descriptions for all these wonderful projects.