YMCA Gets Grant for Healthy Food Initiative

In reaction to a need demonstrated in the communities they serve, the YMCA of Ithaca and Tompkins County applied for, and received, a series of grants totaling $25,000 to help give local children fully balanced meals. The Year-Round Food Program offered at the YMCA used to offer healthy snacks, but with the new grant the program to expand to serve full meals. Since the YMCA was already participating in an initiative around healthy eating and physical activity, expanding that initiative using grant money made sense.

“When these grants came about, and it was to incorporate a meal - because they say one out of six children do not have a meal a day, and in this area where we do have so many who are on either on free lunch or reduced lunch program – we just thought ‘Oh, this just makes sense for us to continue on,’” said Teresa Morehouse, associate executive director.

Morehouse said their healthy snack initiative was from a grant through the Walmart Foundation. Now, the Walmart Foundation is working in coordination with the YMCA of the United States and Morehouse said it seemed silly to not even try to get them. The first $10,000 grant was to provide healthy food options, either snacks or meals. The next $5,000 was for an upgrade to a meal if the recipient was already serving snacks, which the YMCA was. The last $10,000 is for a sponsorship program.

The meals the program will now be able to serve must meet certain nutritional standards and incorporate things like fruit, dairy, whole grains, a protein, and vegetables. Any sugars in the food must be natural sugars, and while there can be natural oils, there can’t be more than a certain amount.

The on-site program at the YMCA facility has 99 kids, while the off-site programs at the Groton Elementary School and Cassavant Elementary School in Mclean serve another 50 or so children.

Part of getting the grant money means finding sponsors to help provide the food that is served to the kids in the program.

“So, we’ve contacted Foodnet, we’ve partnered with Wegmans and they gave us $2,500 in gift cards in order to purchase food,” Morehouse said. “We went to the Friendship Donation Center downtown at the Just Because, and they supply a lot of the food kitchens and drop-ins, Foodnet Meals on Wheels, sort of things to the county. So, when they have overages they let us know and we can go down and get whatever they have.”

But, Morehouse said, her intention is not to take from the soup kitchens and food pantries. This time of year, the Friendship Donation Center sees a lot of donations, including fresh produce.

“We’re trying to be creative in order to get more sponsors for the healthy foods, within the specifications,” Morehouse said.

The last part of the grant money requirements is to “pass it forward.”

“That’s going to take a lot more work,” Morehouse said.

They are in the process of looking for another local organization that the YMCA could sponsor, to hold a program similar to the one the YMCA holds now, that would bring the best benefit to the cause. The grant specifies that the sponsored organization can not be another YMCA, and it can not be within a school. The deadline to decide is August of 2018.

“It would be another nonprofit, of course, and it would be someone in need, in our opinion,” Morehouse said.

The grants were applied for in June of this year and Morehouse said she heard back in September that the YMCA of Ithaca and Tompkins County would be getting the three grants. The $25,000 is meant to help the YMCA provide the meals for a full year. Morehouse said they hope to renew or re-apply for the grant again next year.

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