SPRUCE PINE – The AMY Wellness Foundation hosted an awards reception for its recipients from its first grant cycle.
Through its first grant cycle, the Foundation supported four nonprofits working in food insecurity to increase access to healthy food, provide nutrition education and increase the stock of healthy food in Mitchell, Avery and Yancey counties. The recipients in this category were Tractor Food and Farms, Dig In! Yancey County Community Garden, Feed-A-Child and Reconciliation House.
Four nonprofits in education with the goals of increasing preschool enrollment, availability of after and out-of-school care, outreach to parents and caregivers to provide parenting and nutrition classes, mentorship, entrepreneurship and pro-social teen activities received grants, and the recipients were The Jason Project, Williams YMCA of Avery County, the Blue Ridge Partnership for Children and Partners Aligned Toward Health.
Two nonprofits in poverty and economic stability with the intent to alleviate poverty through community empowerment, entrepreneurship, business investment and advocacy received funds. Those recipients were Pisgah Legal Services and Mayland Community College.
Intermountain Children’s Services received a grant in the nonprofits in access to care category, which will help support children who are underinsured or uninsured with school-based health initiatives of vision screening and equipment.
Mitchell County SafePlace was awarded a grant in the nonprofit working to support interpersonal violence, toxic stress and social cohesion category that addresses domestic violence, interpersonal violence, child abuse or neglect and preventative education around domestic violence to break cycles.
Nonprofits addressing transportation across Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties, which affects all areas of social determinants of health received grants. Those recipients were Avery County Transportation Authority, Mitchell County Transportation Authority, Yancey County Transportation Authority and MY Neighbors.
WAMY Community Action was awarded a grant in the housing category. WAMY will establish a housing and development coalition to study and address the unique challenges of creating and maintaining safe, quality affordable housing in Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties.
The amounts of the awards were not disclosed, and requests from the News-Journal for the specific amounts were denied.
“We have received positive feedback from several organizations who thanked us for not sharing the awarded amount,” said Caitlin Trew-Johnson, marketing and communications director for the AMY Wellness Foundation. “We have left this decision up to each nonprofit we funded. We notice flight in this region from other funders and do not want any organization to see a decrease from other funding sources based on the support they received from AMY.”
Tax-exempt organizations such as nonprofits must annually file an IRS Form 990, an informational tax form. The IRS Form 990 gives the IRS an overview of an organization’s activities, governance and detailed financial information.
They are public record and available for inspection at the nonprofits’ principal offices.