The Twin Lakes Community Foundation, an affiliate of Arkansas Community Foundation, joined nearly 800 community foundations across the country in celebration of Community Foundation week. In honor of the annual event, celebrated this past Monday through Friday, the Twin Lakes Community Foundation celebrated various projects funded through grants from the foundation, according to their Executive Director Gwen Khayat.
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Poverty and hunger is an important issue to the foundation, according to Khayat, who says over 11 percent of senior citizens in our area live in poverty. In order to assist with food costs and delivery of meals to seniors, the foundation awarded an over $2,000 Stop Hunger grant to the Big Flat Senior Center.
According to government statistics, one in every three children in the area live in poverty with some unsure of when and where they will receive their next meal. To address this problem, weekend meals backpack programs have been established to give school children food to provide meals from Friday to Monday when they return to school where they receive breakfast and lunch. Three of those programs received Giving Tree Grants this year, says Khayat, including the Yellville-Summit Food 4 Thought program. They used the funds to purchase insulated containers so fresh produce, to promote healthier eating, could be included in the backpacks.
Another grant recipient, says Khayat, was the Reppell Diabetes Learning Center who receive at $2,000 Giving Tree grant for quarterly “Healthy Cooking Class” to promote better health.
Giving Tree grants from the Twin Lakes Community Foundation to the Single Parent Scholarship Funds of Baxter, Marion and Fulton counties were matched dollar for dollar by their state organization, says Khayat. These scholarships are awarded to single parents who are working toward higher education degrees to proved a better life for their families. In the past five years 22 single parents have successfully completed degree programs with the help of the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Baxter County.
Community foundations, like Twin Lakes Community Foundation, are independent, public entities that steward philanthropic resources from institutional and individual donors to local nonprofits, says Khayat.
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The Twin Lakes Community Foundation offers tools to help local citizens protect, grow and direct their charitable dollars as they learn more about community needs. For more information, contact Khayat at 421-3877.
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