In December 2024 we received a two-year grant totaling $550,000 from Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. This grant award is great news for Episcopal Charities’ approximately 50 food access grant recipients spread across the ten New York counties that comprise the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The Foundation is an essential partner for our Bulk Buy program, which was conceived and launched during the Covid pandemic.
Bulk Buy was designed around the core idea that consolidating purchasing power among our food pantry and community kitchen grantees would enable them to benefit from purchasing scale benefits. With help from the Foundation, Bulk Buy enables us to address this objective by providing food credits that convert to wholesale pricing for our grantees. But Bulk Buy also enables our grantees to succeed in a way that is often difficult for food pantries, even when they have access to traditional food banks: Bulk Buy food credits may be used for fresh produce and other healthy, fresh food types, including those common in meals of varied cultures.
The impact is especially powerful for many of our grantees because of the nature of Episcopal Charities’ mission and founding: our grantee organizations are doing their work in many of the most under-resourced and economically fragile parts of New York, where food bank access and other food source infrastructure is unavailable.
The takeway: if you assume retail prices are double wholesale prices, the Foundation is enabling Episcopal Charities to provide $1.1 million in value of fresh, suitable food to our often underserved and overstretched grantees over the next two years.
What else makes the Foundation a perfect partner for us? The Foundation’s mission - addressing disparities across New York State regardless of faith, bolstering the health outcomes of diverse communities – tracks with our mission. Our unique network of grantee organizations provides access for the Foundation to reach its targeted beneficiaries. And there’s one more synergy: being an immigrant herself, Mother Cabrini would likely have smiled upon our grant focus on Shelter & Immigration.
Thank you to our valued colleagues at Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for their friendship and for their faith in us as a partner.
" We are deeply honored by the wide-ranging impact of our work and by the dedication of our grantees across New York State. We’re inspired by the compassionate legacy of Mother Frances Cabrini, as this year marks a significant milestone in our grantmaking, as we surpassed $1 billion in grants since our founding. This moment fuels our commitment as a Foundation to look toward the future, where we will continue making bold investments in a healthier, more equitable future for all," said Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo, Chief Executive Officer of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation.
The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of New Yorkers, bolster the health outcomes of vulnerable communities, eliminate barriers to care, and bridge gaps in health services. Named after a tireless advocate for immigrants, children, and the poor, the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation funds programs and initiatives across New York State that either provide direct healthcare services or address the social determinants of health. For more information, visit cabrinihealth.org.
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