Talk about stretching your dollars.
A recent gift to the Humanity House Foundation came with the promise it would match other donations up to $25,000.
That happened — and more.
The fundraising effort garnered a little over $30,000. The $55,000 will go primarily to feeding the area’s poor, said Humanity House Director Barbara Button.
It’s not often that fundraising exceeds organizers’ efforts, Button said. The collective effort is what made the difference.
Humanity House, 110 East St., includes a food pantry, free laundry services, utility relief payments, educational classes, and Saturday Bingo events. Through these programs and services, the nonprofit hopes to impact physical, emotional, and spiritual poverty in our communities.
The program with the biggest need is its food pantry.
“Our expenses for food are in the neighborhood of $5,000 each month,” she said. The pantry has seen a 37% increase of food being given to those in need over the prior year. It is open to anyone and everyone that needs food.
“We receive support with food or monetary donations and quite a bit also comes from the community garden,” Button explained. “There are just more people coming and utilizing the service. A lot of it has to do with changes in employment or they have fallen on hard times due to an emergency crisis.”
Humanity House is working on expanding its food offerings with additional proteins. “We have a donor who gives us beef at a reduced cost so that we are able to add proteins into the food that is available,” Button said.
“Our utility relief program also requires quite a bit of cash,” said Button. Humanity House offers financial assistance through this program to people who are struggling to keep their utilities turned on. The organization asks to be notified prior to utilities being turned off and that the amount is paid back, either financially or through volunteering. “We hope to partner with some organizations going forward to help with weatherization, which should also help,” she added.
In addition to the $25,000 donation and money raised, Humanity House has also received a trio of grants. A $4,000 grant from Frontier Farm Credit will go toward restoring community garden equipment damaged by the April 28 flood. The community garden provides fresh produce to those who are experiencing food insecurity. The Community Foundation of Pittsburg has awarded a $2,300 grant to Humanity House that will go towards addressing local food insecurity.
And, awarded this week, Walmart gave $2,000, which will be used to support the food pantry program.
