Small volunteer groups across Illinois that provide food assistance may soon receive a financial boost, thanks to a new grant program announced this week by Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs.
The Charitable Trust Hunger Relief Grant program will award up to $5,000 each to 10 nonprofit organizations that do not employ full-time staff. The grants are intended to help these groups purchase food for Illinoisans in need. Applications for the grant opened June 1st and will be accepted through July 31st.
The announcement comes at a time when food assistance organizations are seeing increased demand, partly due to recent cuts in federal programs like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). According to Feeding America, SNAP provides nine meals for every one meal offered by the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization.
“Hunger and food insecurity is a hidden epidemic afflicting children who cannot ask for help and adults who find it difficult to ask for help as they juggle two or more jobs,” Frerichs said in a statement on June 10. “Small, local food pantries and soup kitchens are prepared to help these innocent lives because they see those suffering in the shadows. That is why we created this desperately needed hunger relief program, as these organizations try to help people get food as affordability remains a major concern.”
The hunger relief grant is part of the state’s Charitable Trust fund, established in 2007 to support small nonprofits with annual budgets of $1 million or less and at least one full-time employee. However, this round of grants is specifically aimed at organizations with no full-time staff, expanding eligibility to even smaller groups that previously did not qualify.
The fund is supported by fees paid by larger nonprofit corporations when they file annual incorporation reports with the Illinois Secretary of State. An 11-member committee, composed of state agency appointees and private citizens, is responsible for managing the fund and selecting grant recipients.
Volunteer-run food pantries, soup kitchens, and similar groups interested in applying for the grant can submit applications through July 31st.