Community Foundation Launches Helpful Harvest Fund, Awards $38,500 to Human Service Organizations

The Helpful Harvest Fund, a newly launched field-of-interest fund at the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, awarded $38,500 to more than 30 human service organizations including food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters during the month of November to support increased need around the holidays and colder months.

This year’s recipients received grants ranging from $1,000 to $1,500:

• Bill Gavin Food Pantry
• Camden Area Food Pantry
• Catholic Charities of Herkimer County
• Catholic Charities of Oneida & Madison Counties
• College Community Connection
• Connected Community Schools
• Cornerstone Community Church
• Country Pantry
• Feed Our Veterans
• First United Methodist Church of Herkimer & Little Falls
• Helping Hands Food Pantry
• Herkimer County Office for the Aging
• Historic Old St. John's Church
• Hope House
• Johnson Park Center
• Karing Kitchen
• Kids for Utica Outreach Ministries
• Little Falls Youth & Family Center
• Midtown Utica Community Center
• Mohawk Valley Frontiers Club
• Mother Marianne's West Side Kitchen
• New Life Assembly of God Food Pantry
• Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church
• Rescue Mission of Utica
• Salvation Army of Herkimer
• Salvation Army Utica Citadel Corps
• St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church
• St. Margaret's Food Pantry
• The Salvation Army of Rome, NY
• Thea Bowman House
• Utica Center for Development
• Waterville Food Pantry
• Westminster Moriah Olivet Pantry

“Each year, we support food pantries during the November-December holiday season, and we were looking to get an early start to ensure their needs were met in a timely manner as they began to organize for their giving and outreach,” said Olivia Paul, director of community engagement at the Community Foundation. “We established the Helpful Harvest Fund to help the nonprofits meet their needs stemming from economic difficulty and food insecurity in the two counties." 

Many Community Foundation fundholders donated to the fund or recommended a grant directly to eligible organizations as part of their year-end giving. Donations to the fund will be accepted year-round in preparation of next year’s holiday season. To learn more about the fund and to donate, visit foundationhoc.org/helpfulharvestfund.