Three local nonprofits receive $625,000 in funding for hunger relief and animal welfare

Three local nonprofits dedicated to hunger relief and animal welfare will benefit from $625,000 in grants from the Coastal Bend Community Foundation.

Hunger and homelessness are widespread and interconnected problems across South Texas. More than 627 people in Nueces County are homeless, according to the latest results from a Point-in-Time count.

While food banks and pantries often serve the homeless, most food bank recipients are working people with unexpected expenses or who cannot afford the cost of groceries.

About 145,000 people living in Nueces County were served at food banks last year, said Karen Selim, president and CEO of the CBCF, underscoring the need for funding to enable food banks to obtain more food from banks to serve clients.

“The food given to the pantries is given away almost immediately, and most of the pantries are run by volunteers, so it’s quite important that we have people available in our region to provide services to those in need,” she noted . “This is a way to meet the need in those pantries.”

For the Coastal Bend Food Bank, a recipient of $410,170 in cash awarded through the Food Pantry Special Grant, the funds build capacity to enable low-cost food distribution to more than 50 food banks, including mobile food distribution services, across CBFB’s seven-county network .

Food banks earn credits that are applied to food bank accounts based on the number of people served the previous year. The grant also supports mobile food distribution in counties served by partner food banks.

The Golden Crescent Food Bank, which provides food assistance to more than 40,000 people in 11 counties each month, including the mobile food unit in Refugio County, received $14,830 in grants in February.

This is the seventh year the foundation has funded local nonprofits and charities through the grant, awarding more than $2 million in grants, Selim said.

“The Coastal Bend Community Foundation has been a godsend to us as we help our neighbors in need in Refugio County,” said Robin Cadle, president and CEO of the FBGC.

Last year, the grant helped provide food assistance to more than 368,543 people in the seven-county service area, and with an additional $50,000 awarded this year, the impact will hopefully be greater, Selim said.

CBCF also awarded $200,000 to People Assisting Animal Control, a nonprofit organization that provides low-cost spay and neuter services to clients in 20 counties at its clinic in Corpus Christi. PAAC received the subsidy last year to sterilize or neuter 2,152 animals. Some were pets, and others were wild catch-and-release.

A total of $525,000 has been paid out through the program since 2022, and the goal this year is the same: to support responsible pet ownership, Selim said.

“Our community benefits from a more manageable pet population because it reduces pressure on shelters and ensures more animals find loving forever homes,” she said. “Police and animal control can identify areas where the need is greatest, and people who help animal control have a wide reach, but only Nueces County has an urban center.

“We have expanded our focus to provide outreach, especially in rural areas, to try to get high-volume, turnkey spay and neuter services to certain areas and populations,” she said. “This organization, with its veterinary services, volunteers and staff, has the capacity to serve a large number of clients.”

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Three nonprofits receive $625,000 for hunger relief and animal welfare