Angels’ Place 

Organization’s Mission:  to provide exceptional family support and quality early childhood education to help parents in need and their children to become lifelong learners and create a brighter future.

Program Description/Goals:  Angels’ Place provides high-quality early childhood education, childcare and family support to thousands of single parents and their children.  Nutritional coordinators provide a hot homecooked breakfast and lunch, as well as two snacks, for children in their care, at no cost to families.  The program recognizes that children learn best when they are properly nourished and developing healthy eating habits, while at the same time reducing the financial strain to parents on a limited income.

Bible Center Oasis Project – Better Food, Better Me 

Organization’s Mission:  The mission of the Oasis Project is to create oases—places of peace, safety and happiness in the midst of trouble and difficulty.  Their goals are to provide programs and services for Homewood youth with a particular focus on education, employment and entrepreneurship; to create community-based businesses that employ young people and Homewood residents; and to acquire and redevelop vacant and abandoned properties in Homewood. 

Program Description/Goals:  BF,BM uses a holistic approach to teach Homewood  and Lincoln/Larimer elementary and middle-school students to understand the life cycle of food, the value of good nutrition, and the importance of learning to cook foods that will improve health and well-being.  Three separate sessions (Spring, Summer and Fall) are held by the Oasis Project’s Farm Manager and after-school staff, supplemented by guest chefs, nutritionists, dieticians and urban farmers.  The students are given the opportunity to learn not only how to use healthy, fresh ingredients, but how to grow them in a sustainable way using hydroponic and aquaponic systems.

Fayette County Community Action Agency – Let’s Get Cooking! 

Organization’s Mission:  FCCAA’s mission is to strengthen individuals and families to become more self-sufficient, achieving their potential by taking advantage of opportunities, improving the conditions in which they live, and taking ownership of their community.  Our promise to the community states that “Community Action changes people’s lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live.  We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other.”

Program Description/Goals:   FCCAA has worked hard to increase the availability and quality of food in underserved neighborhoods and food deserts, but they have come to understand that access is simply not enough.  FCCAA’s Let’s Get Cooking adds preparation and cooking of healthy foods into their client visits, offering guidance and support to pregnant women in Fayette or Greene Counties, and continuing on for two years after the children are born.  Nurse Home Visitors make home visits and help families identify their needs and develop a strategy to address those needs, drawing connections to other community resources.

Feed Our Students 

Organization’s Mission:  to help end childhood hunger and improve student learning through our Backpack Feeding Program. This program provides 6 meals to students over the weekend who suffer from food insecurity and it gives them the proper nutrition they need in order to concentrate on their schoolwork and not being hungry.

Program Description/Goals: There are many students in Pittsburgh who qualify for free or reduced lunch and have access to food at school for breakfast and lunch.  These same students lack food over the weekend during the school year, so by providing them with weekend food for 6 meals, they receive the proper nutrition they need and can concentrate on their schoolwork and not being hungry.

Garfield Community Farm 

Organization’s Mission: to provide fresh produce and educational opportunities with our neighbors and volunteers, and seeks to demonstrate restoration of creation through urban agriculture in the Garfield community.

Program Description/Goals: Garfield Community Farm is a 2.5 acre urban permaculture project built in the midst of public housing where there is limited access to grocery stores or fresh produce.  The farm provides outdoor education for approximately 250 neighborhood children on food production and nutrition. To help them store food between harvest and when the children can eat it, cook with it, or distribute it, Garfield Community Farm will use Giving2Grow funds to build a post-harvest wash station/cold storage shed which will allow them to keep produce picked earlier in the week, and to reach more children and families by allowing the complete use of seasonal harvests.

Whitehall Presbyterian Church Food4Kids 

Organization’s Mission:  The mission of Whitehall Church is to love and worship the one True God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We strive to love and support all people and to testify to the Good News of Jesus Christ in our own community and in the Greater Community around us.

Program Description/Goals:  Each week during the school year, volunteers from Whitehall Presbyterian Church purchase, coordinate, supply and deliver individual bags of food for kindergarten and first grade students in a local grade school.  These children all qualify for Federal Free and Reduced lunch program.  The bag of food includes nutritional food for 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and snacks that a young child can prepare and eat by themselves.