The Genuardi Family Foundation is privileged to partner with many regional organizations whose direct services aid the most vulnerable and support the development of healthy individuals, families and communities.
2023 Core Grantee Highlights
Upper Merion Area Community Cupboard’s primary mission is to serve food insufficient individuals and families living within the Upper Merion Area School District. General operating funds will support the purchasing of food and other supplies to meet the needs of their patrons. By receiving sufficient groceries every week, families can more easily afford other expenses in their lives (i.e. rent, utilities and medical bills).
Bucks County Opportunity Council, started in 1965, is the lead anti-poverty organization in Bucks County. Funding will support general operations of their food program, which provides food through a variety of channels to low-income families throughout Bucks County. One of the programs offered is Fresh Connect, a collaborative farmers-market style distribution directly to families. They also provide a food delivery program to homebound individuals and families, lunches for schools, and a stable food delivery to seniors living independently or in senior housing.
Keystone Opportunity Center, founded in 2009, helps community members in need by offering a comprehensive array of social services. Funding will support their food access program in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. The program includes a food pantry, Fresh for All (mobile food distribution), summer food for children, holiday meal bags and a community garden for clients to grow their own food.
Good Samaritan Services works throughout Chester County to address the full spectrum of housing needs in the community. Funding is for Chester County Emergency Housing Support, working to help people achieve and maintain stability so they can move on to sustainable independent living. Components of the program include work, transportation, life skills development, financial stability and locating affordable housing.
Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania provides quality legal representation to low-income and vulnerable people in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties, addressing housing and homelessness. Funding will support the portion of its work that directly addresses housing instability and housing loss due to eviction, foreclosure, tax sales and loss of public housing benefits.
Chester County Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) is a comprehensive employment and vocational counseling agency that assists youth, adults, dislocated youth, and justice-involved individuals in Chester County. Funding will support general operations of their educational programs, which include adult basic education, health occupations, workforce reintegration and professional development workshops and opportunity fairs.
Trellis for Tomorrow began in 2003 and has become a regional leader in utilizing organic, local gardening as a driver of youth workforce development programs and improving food security through a food justice model. Funding will support SEED, a workforce development program teaching youth to manage gardens in their own neighborhoods. Another program, GROW, places, subsidizes and engages youth, ages 16-24, in paid internships with nonprofits and social impact businesses.