ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 A microgrant from city lawmakers is set to help an Allentown nonprofit deliver hot holiday meals to hundreds of people this Thanksgiving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allentown Young Professionals landed a $2,000 grant from City Council\u2019s inaugural Civic Fund program. It plans to use that money to help fund its ninth Turkey Drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the annual event\u2019s first year, the nonprofit provided enough groceries for six families to make a Thanksgiving meal, according to Louis Holzman, a founding member of AYP.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That process soon evolved as \u201cwe quickly realized, for some of the families that we’re giving this to, they may not even have the means necessary to cook a meal in a kitchen,\u201d Holzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, the nonprofit handed out 56 Thanksgiving meal boxes from Cracker Barrel, packed with turkey, cornbread dressing, cranberry relish, sweet potato casserole, green beans and other fixings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a village, and we’re confident (in) the village that we have behind us here to help pull this forward.”
\u2013 Louis Holzman, Allentown Young Professionals <\/p>\n
Those 56 cooked meals likely fed 10 times that many people, with plenty for leftovers, Holzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most people the AYP helps through its Turkey Drive have \u201chardships in life that they\u2019re working through,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it’s just for that hour or those two hours or that evening that they’re sitting around with with their loved ones and getting to enjoy those hot-and-ready meals, hopefully that was just one thing that they didn’t have to worry about and that made (things) a little bit easier,\u201d Holzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Allentown Young Professionals raised about $8,000 last year to purchase 56 boxes. This fall, in its 10th year as a nonprofit, the group is working to raise a similar amount to add to the microgrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Council’s funding will go a long way toward topping last year\u2019s box total, as it\u2019s essentially erasing the cost of inflation over the past year for the nonprofit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLife always gets more expensive,\u201d Holzman said. \u201cThe meals have gotten more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holzman expects AYP can buy about 60 meals if it raises $10,000. With 20% of that already secured through council\u2019s grant, \u201cthat gives us a good jumping-off point,\u201d Holzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And he has no doubt the community will support its \u201ccore initiative\u201d again this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a village, and we’re confident (in) the village that we have behind us here to help pull this forward,” he said. <\/p>\n
AYP with support from other nonprofits hosted monthly events for several years before the pandemic forced it to change tack.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re right where we need to be, but the grant from the city is a really appreciated and welcomed backstop.”
\u2013 Louis Holzman, Allentown Young Professionals<\/p>\n
Members now support the Community Services for Children Holiday Drive and provide a $1,000 scholarship for an Allentown resident attending Lehigh Carbon Community College while pouring most of their efforts into the Turkey Drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFood insecurity is real,\u201d Holzman said, noting it\u2019s long been \u201cfront and center\u201d for members who grew up in the city and saw many friends rely on school-provided meals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lehigh Valley has a food insecurity rate of about 14%. That means more than 100,000 people across the region struggle to access and afford adequate, safe and nutritious food. And about 20% of children are food insecure, according to Second Harvest Food Bank of Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Turkey Drive was \u201ca really important initiative for us to continue to do,\u201d Holzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nonprofit members are in the midst of a \u201csix-week push\u201d to advertise and fundraise; every year so far, they\u2019ve been able \u201cto go from from zero to $8,000 or zero to $10,000\u201d in that short window before Thanksgiving, Holzman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re right where we need to be, but the grant from the city is a really appreciated and welcomed backstop,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Union & Finch bistro in Allentown is set to host AYP\u2019s annual \u201cDine and Donate\u201d fundraiser\u00a0from 5-9 p.m. Nov. 4. The business will donate a portion of sales to the Allentown Young Professionals\u2019 initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The organization was among a dozen that got $2,000 grants from council\u2019s Civic Fund program. Almost 50 groups sought funding during the program\u2019s inaugural round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grants are also set to fund Blank Slate\u2019s community garden and meal program; Somos CDC\u2019s multilingual outreach efforts and town halls; and the Neighborhood Center\u2019s work with kids in the Jordan Heights neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Civic Fund money will also support a youth theater program, afterschool programming for Mosser Elementary students, and a career readiness initiative for high schoolers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City Council President Santo Napoli said the grants are meant to amplify \u201corganizations and residents who are working every day to make our neighborhoods stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2013 A microgrant from city lawmakers is set to help an Allentown nonprofit deliver hot holiday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-312816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}