Opus Foundation Grants Support Food Services

More than 40 million people in the U.S. are food insecure. That's people from all walks of life who face a lack of access to enough food for a healthy life or don't know where their next meal will come from.

COVID-19's impact on the U.S. economy has increased the need for food.

When the Opus Foundation considered their emergency response, they looked at the way nonprofits are adapting to best support the needs of the people they serve. With food assistance and distribution, partners are rising to the challenge to safely and creatively serve those most vulnerable. The Foundation supported those efforts by awarding more than 30 grants to nonprofits providing food to people in need within their communities.

“We've maintained services related to our FEED mission," said Jill Collins, who manages grants at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Phoenix, an Impact Fund grantee. “We pivoted our working model overnight to develop socially-distant procedures and additional sanitizing protocols to serve our community."

As they shifted to a to-go, prepared-meal model, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul saw a $2.75 increase in cost per meal. Money from the Foundation is helping offset that increase.

Impact Fund grantees providing food in some capacity:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City
• Child Crisis AZ
• Christopher House (Chicago)
• Denver Inner City Parish
• Greater Chicago Food Depository
• Lutheran Child & Family Services (Indianapolis)
• Society of St. Vincent de Paul (Phoenix)
• YMCA of the Greater Twin Cities (Minneapolis)

Opportunity Fund grantees providing food in some capacity:

• A New Leaf (Phoenix)
• Beyond Housing (St. Louis)
• Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
• Colorado Coalition for the Homeless
• Denver Community Ventures (Denver Housing Authority)
• DuPage PADS (Chicago)
• Food Bank of Iowa
• Food for Thought (Denver)
• Freedom for Youth Ministries (Des Moines)
• Giving the Basics (Kansas City)
• Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana
• Hart Pantry (Phoenix)
• Harvesters - The Community Food Network (Kansas City)
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation (St. Louis)
• Loaves & Fishes Naperville (Chicago)
• Meals from the Heartland (Des Moines)
• Metro Caring (Denver)
• Metro Meals on Wheels (Minneapolis)
• Second Harvest Heartland (Minneapolis)
• Second Helpings (Indianapolis)
• St. Louis Area Foodbank
• St. Louis Park Emergency Program Inc. (STEP) (Minneapolis)
• Tempe Community Action Agency (Phoenix)
• Youth Emergency Services & Shelter of Iowa

Find out how you can help in your community by visiting the grantees' websites linked above or
Feeding America's foodbank locator.

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Always committed to making our communities better places to live, work and play, the Opus Foundation quickly mobilized a COVID-19 emergency response. See the full list of recipients here.

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The Opus Foundation, the corporate foundation of Opus, is building community for a better tomorrow by supporting projects and programs that make our communities better places to live, work and raise families. The Foundation is committed to improving conditions that disproportionately affect historically underinvested individuals and communities by focusing on early childhood education, youth development, workforce development and community revitalization. Read more about the Foundation's work. The Opus Foundation is a separate entity from The Opus Group and is led by its own Board of Directors.