By Madison Dyment
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
In these unprecedented times, many things remain uncertain
for people across the country, but one thing Midway and Woodford County can
count on is that their fellow community members will be there to support them.
One example is the Woodford County Community Fund’s recent
creation of the Covid-19 Relief Fund, open for funding applications from any
non-profit organization in the county.
Lori Garkovich, who has chaired the Community Fund for
roughly three years, said the fund is providing support for non-profits that
serve the community while the covid-19 outbreak disrupts many lives. With
remaining funds left over from previous community enhancement grants, the
organization felt obligated to offer provisions to “support their community
every way they could,” she said.
“I said to our group, ‘I can’t sit here knowing we have
money left,’ because I knew this was going to be bad,” Garkovich said in an
interview. “My amazing board agreed to go through with it and we received three
immediate requests after releasing it.”
The grants were offered the week of March 12 after notice
that public schools in the county were shutting down.
In mid-March, a small committee of the Community Fund
approved $6,000 in grants for non-profits Mentors & Meals, Spark Community
Cafe, and Esperanza.
Grant money is still available for other non-profits, and
the Community Fund has continued to raise more money so it will have more to
give.
Lori Garkovich |
“My incredible, incredible colleagues decided that we are
going to keep spending until we run out of money, so we’re still going,” said
Garkovich.
The fund said in a press release, “Grants will be
distributed on a rolling basis as fundraising continues throughout the outbreak
and recovery phases of the crisis, making it possible to move resources quickly
and adapt to evolving needs. Nonprofit agencies seeking funding may download
the grant application at www.bgcf.org/woodfordcounty.”
Each application request is evaluated by a prospective
budget submitted by the applicant with no limit for the amount of grant money
available. Grant amounts have ranged from $1,200 to $3,000.
“We need to balance the demand for support with the
availability of funds,” Garkovich said, “so we don’t have a limit for the
grants.”
The grant application has few questions, designed for ease
and speed of submission, and non-profits have received notice of funding in as
quickly as 48 hours.
“It was probably the easiest and fastest grant I have ever
written,” said Lisa Johnson, executive director and founder of Mentors &
Meals. “Within 48 hours I heard the grant was approved, and in around four days
we received a check in the mail. It was fast and enabled me to proceed with our
plan of action.”
Mentors
& Meals, an after-school program for at-risk middle schoolers, put the
grant money towards providing hot meals for the 75 to 100 student enrollees and
their families.
“Since
receiving the WCF grant, we have delivered 960 hot meals and counting,” said
Johnson. “On April 9, we are going to roll out an ‘M&Ms Meal Box’ which, in
addition to delivering hot meals to the families, will provide ingredients and
a recipe card so they have another meal to make over the weekend.”
Mentors
& Meals also helps students who struggle with the imposed non-traditional
instruction by helping those with no internet connection, keeping in contact
with their students frequently, and interfacing with teachers at the middle
school to understand what the students are required to complete and learn.
“We just
want our families to know that we care about them and are here to help them
through Covid-19,” said Johnson. “We will get through this and we will get
through it together!”
The
Spark Community Cafe, an inclusive “pay-what-you-can/pay-it-forward”
restaurant, received grant money in partnership with Mentors & Meals. The
café used its funding to prepare dinners for the program on Thursday evenings
from March 12 through April 2.
Additionally, they also supplied breakfasts for
food-insecure students at Woodford County High School, gave meals to hospice
patients, a church program providing care for the homeless, and supported
Esperanza and other groups that reach out to the cafe.
“The
first day of school breakfasts, Spark served 175 people and by the second day,
we served over 400 people,” said Garkovich, who also serves on the Spark board.
Esperanza
is a non-profit run by Robin Miller of the Versailles Presbyterian Church, which
provides support for Hispanic families in Woodford County. Having received the
largest grant of around $3,000, the group channeled funds toward helping
families who have lost income due to job loss during the crisis. They supply
necessities such as food, baby formula and diapers, and cover utility and rents
costs for these vulnerable families.
“A lot
of people in these families work in the service industry and have lost their
jobs,” said Garkovich, a retired professor in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. “They won’t be eligible for the government-given $1,500
because they don’t have green cards even though they have legitimate tax
numbers and are legally working.”
Any
Woodford County non-profit is encouraged to reach out to the Woodford County
Community Fund to apply for the Covid-19 Relief Fund, Garkovich said: “None
of us want to think after that we had money that we could have given to support
people, but we chose not to do it. We just want everyone to know that this
money’s available and that we’re going to spend our interest income until it’s
gone.”
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