COVID-19 Response Funds 2021

Much Needed Community Support

COVID-19 Food and Community Assistance Funds

Because of donors like you we are able to keep serving the community by providing more than $290,000 in grantsfrom our COVID-19 Food and Community Assistance Funds to help during the ongoing pandemic:

• $5,129 for Haines Assistance – facing dual challenge of COVID and a natural disaster, this grant to the Chilkat Valley Emergency Response Fund supports assistance to the most vulnerable survivors and getting families back on their feet.

• $10,000 to Southeast Alaska Food Bank operations and food purchases.

• $10,000 to the Weekend Food Backpack Programfor students.

• $10,000 to Teen Health Center at the Juneau high schools supporting additional counselor time.

• $4,000 to support youth transportation to activities, distributed by the Zach Gordon Youth Center.

• $28,000 grant for two AmeriCorps positions through United Way of S.E. Alaska. These literacy support assistants will help students at Harborview and or Sayeik Gastineau Elementary School ‘catch up’ on school work missed because of COVID.

• $25,000 to help youth activity providers address COVID related expenses as they offer in person activities for kids, recipients include Juneau Alaska Music Matters, Sealaska Heritage Institute, Echo Ranch, Tlingit Haida, Discovery Southeast, Lynn Canal Adventures, Juneau School District/Zach Gordon Youth Center.

• $10,000 grant to the Organized Village of Kake to help address issues of food insecurity and youth mental health, both of which have been negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic.

• $10,000 grant to Family Promise for providing night staff support for families temporarily residing with Family Promise until volunteers can safely return.

• $18,000 for the Safe Space For School Program run by Congregation Sukkat Shalom, providing internet access, meals, and adult supervision for students needing support. Similar grants to Shepherd of the Valley and Resurrection Lutheran Church were made in January.

• A $50,000 grant to Alaska Legal Services is assisting folks in Juneau and Southeast who need legal help to stay in their housing.

• $50,000 for United Way of Southeast Alaska’s Juneau Cares Meals Program.  Inspired by Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen, which puts restaurants to work making food that is needed, the Foundation reached out to Larry and Sue Cotter, who enlisted United Way, in developing a similar program in Juneau. The Alaska Community Foundation provided initial funding and this grant ensures the program will continue to employ restaurants to provide meals to Juneau’s homeless residents and those in need.

• $21,740 for the Safe Space For School Program run by Shepherd of the Valley and Resurrection Lutheran Churches. Started with funds from CBJ, this grant will ensure these programs that provide a place for children to have access to the internet, eat breakfast and lunch, and spend time with caring adults will continue through February.

• $15,000 to support opening a Juneau Youth Shelter. Juneau does not have an emergency shelter for youth. The Juneau Coalition on Housing and Homelessness identified opening and running a youth shelter as the highest priority gap in services, which needed to be corrected. These funds will be used to assist CBJ with re-acquiring a building that was formerly used as a youth shelter. And, funding from many sources will pay for running the programs at the shelter.

These grants are targeted toward filling in some of the most glaring gaps in community services as federal funds are depleted and before any additional relief funds reach Juneau.

COVID-19 Response Funds 2020

Funds & Grants

Stay healthy! As Juneau slowly, carefully, reopens aspects of the economy previously shut down, we encourage you to keep doing what you can to stay healthy and help thwart the spread of COVID-19 in our hometown. Please continue to be vigilant about hand washing and social distancing. Thanks to your donations, we are working with funders and partner agencies to respond to local needs, including these recent grants:

• $10,000 grant to Southeast Alaska Food Bank supporting food purchases and the new mobile food pantry
• $10,000 grant to Juneau School District’s student food programs
• $10,000 grant to Juneau’s COVID-19 testing process and the community paramedicine program
• $6,000 grant to provide free hand sanitizer distribution to individuals in Juneau and outlying communities – thanks to the Alaskan Brewery’s supply chain
• $5,000 grant to Healing Hand Foundation’s local production of masks for nonprofit organizations and individuals
• $5,200 grant to support purchase of platforms and tents for the new Thane campground

2020 Community Assistance Fund

The 2020 Community Assistance Fund was established to address widespread immediate and longer term challenges facing our community due to the coronavirus: health, safety, food security, economic issues, and other aspects of making our community whole again and assisting our neighbors. Addressing the outfall of the pandemic will require additional funding in order to respond to needs both today and in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you to initial donors supporting both Juneau and Southeast Alaska.

Homeless person receives warm drink at emergency overnight shelter

2020 Food Assistance Fund

The 2020 Food Assistance Fund was established to raise funds primarily for the Southeast Alaska Food Bank and making sure folks in Juneau can get food. At the outset of the virus, donations to the Food Bank dropped off as individuals stocked up on food and grocery stores had bare shelves and limited food to donate. In the following weeks, the donations by individuals and by our grocery stores has increased steadily.  The Food Bank still has added expenses from purchasing additional food and providing a new weekly mobile pantry at the Sealaska Building downtown to better meet the food needs of those unable to get to the Food Bank itself.

COVID-19 Response Grants

 $10,000 to Southeast Alaska Food Bank

Distribution of food at the Southeast Alaska Foodbank on Saturday, April 11, 2020.

When the Food Bank told us that their food stocks and donations were low, and that they anticipated an increase in demand as those recently unemployed need food assistance, the Juneau Community Foundation offered to help. We quickly established the Food Assistance Fund and started collecting monetary donations to support food purchases by the Food Bank to supplement food distribution to food pantries, to their 34 member organizations, and to individuals. The Foundation will work closely with this frontline partner on the need for and timing of additional grants.

“The Foundation lending a hand at this critical time has been huge for us. Their efforts significantly increased community awareness, raised much needed funds, and also dramatically increased cash and food donations coming directly to us” – Dave Lefebvre, Board President, Food Bank

$10,000 to Juneau School District’s Student Food Programs

Juneau School District grab-n-go breakfast and lunch program for students

In response to the coronavirus, the Juneau School District’s student food programs have expanded to feed children seven days a week through their universal breakfast and lunch program, and the recently added, weekend ‘backpack program’. The Foundation will work closely with this frontline partner on the need for and timing of additional grants.

“As a school district, we have embraced our role in supporting students, families and our community in the area of food needs. We are so grateful for the continued role the Juneau Community Foundation has played in our efforts. This donation is incredible evidence of their commitment and support to our community.” – Bridget Weiss, Superintendent, Juneau School District

In consultation with community leaders and other funders, the Foundation will continue to make granting decisions to address priority needs. Your donations will enable us to serve our community in these unprecedented times.