Archive: Around Town

Community Foundation of Tompkins County, Legacy Foundation, and United Way of Tompkins County have partnered to provide $15,000 in additional funds to help meet the needs of Tompkins County residents through the Salvation Army of Ithaca. The funds will be used to support food pantry, mobile food pantry, and other outreach efforts in direct response to COVID-19 challenges that our community is facing.

"While practicing enhanced safety protocols and social distancing, The Salvation Army has doubled its efforts to reach vulnerable populations," Anita Leitgeb, Donor Relations Director for The Salvation Army explains. "Our outreach coordinator is now serving at least fifty homeless individuals located in "the Jungle" weekly with snacks and water. Our food pantry is seeing increased needs daily and households can now call in for a pre-packaged food box. We have also deployed a mobile food pantry to deliver in neighborhoods. We continue to provide Grab and Go lunches on Saturdays as well as a meal to go on Sundays. Both of these programs are seeing a 50% increase in participation. We are providing an additional 300 meals to residents who live in local hotels. The Salvation Army in Ithaca continues to adapt to this fluid situation which changes daily and will continue to serve our community during this time of challenge."

The funding for The Salvation Army and other COVID19 response projects are made possible through grants awarded by local funders, who have been meeting virtually twice a week since March 16 in order to respond to needs.

"Building on existing relationships of trust, respect, and effectiveness, local funders are leaning into this crisis to coordinate our respective unique skills to make the sum of the individual parts greater than the whole," said Community Foundation CEO George Ferrari.

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